Hybrid Mesoporous and Microporous Materials Characterisation

My thesis research is undertaken to address various challenges in the study of porous hybrid materials. The effect of the insertion of polymer in porous material via an electrochemical process, the analysis of the photocurrent generated by developing a hybrid p-n junction, the stability and the resistance added to the pristine material by the process and the definition of a protocol for mass spectrometry analysis of porous materials and buried interfaces will be presented in the seminar. Two popular analysis techniques; electrochemistry and mass spectrometry, explored the potential to analyse organic inorganic hybrid materials and interfaces using different polymers and different inorganic substrates. Electrochemical and optical study made on porous silicon grafted with a conducting polymer, properties like resistance to attack by basic solution and photocurrent generation will be presented and explained. The possibility to understand how the polymer is attached to the pore walls is investigated by mass spectrometry imaging. This technique requires refinement of measurement parameters for this class of materials, by using models with similar composition and geometry. To do this, I used a focused ion beam (FIB) for milling the surface of a porous micrometric matrix applying a particular cleaning procedure to recover the damaged polymeric component. This method has been successfully applied to other devices to highlight the effectiveness of this technique in section. These studies provide the essential metrological foundation to address frontier issues in surface and nanoanalysis and extend the measurement capabilities of secondary ion mass spectrometry.