| Over the last decade a tremendous effort has been dedicated to the design and controlled fabrication of core-shell colloidal materials with functional properties. The interest in surface-engineered nanoparticles rises from the fact that the surface of the inorganic core can be easily engineered with a large variety of functional groups. The shell can alter the charge, functionality, and reactivity of the surface, increase chemical stability and enable the formation of hollow nano-architectures. The unique properties of these particles lend themselves to potentially valuable applications in molecular-scale electronics, sensing, photonics, and catalysis, among others.; This dissertation will focus on facile and flexible synthetic approaches for creating surface-engineered nanomaterials. Metal nanoparticles, particularly of silver and gold, will be used as template for creation of complex and ordered nanomaterials with tailored and tunable structural, optical and surface properties.; It is imperative to understand the crystallography of metallic nanorods and nanowires, to understand the growth mechanism(s). In particular, knowledge of the crystallography of nanorods and nanowires can help to elucidate the overarching factors and local mechanisms leading to nanorod growth. Moreover, by understanding the atom arrangement, defects, and the morphology of the resulting nanorods one can identify the structure at the atomic level. Insight into the growth mechanisms of gold nanorods and silver nanowires will be explored with high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, and related techniques.; Metal nanoparticles were used as templates for the fabrication of various core-shell nanomaterials, such as nano-peapod architectures, hollow materials, bimetallic colloids, and patchy nanomaterials. Their optical properties, including light absorption, elastic light scattering, and inelastic light scattering (e.g., surface-enhanced Raman scattering) were exploited in chemical sensing applications. Additionally, current and future possible applications of these materials will be discussed. |
