| Well-defined colloidal particles have wide applications in optics, electronics, catalysis and diagnostics. Considerable effort has recently been devoted to the design and controlled fabrication of colloidal particles with various functionalities.{09}Effective strategies to build tailored colloidal particles reliably and predictably are required in order to meet the ever-increasing demands placed on colloidal materials science. The properties of colloidal particles strongly depend on their size, composition, shape, and spatial organization. This research will develop a few strategies to modify these parameters in producing new types of colloidal particles for a number of applications. The first goal is to coat colloidal particles of metals, metal oxides, and polymers with thin shells of different materials, such as oxides and polymers. The obtained core-shell materials generally have enhanced or specific performance due to the combined properties and/or structuring effects of the components. They will be used as new building blocks in constructing plasmonic waveguides and three-dimensional (3D) photonic crystals. The second goal of this research is to fabricate nonspherical colloidal particles with uniform sizes and shapes. Both direct and indirect methods will be used in producing monodispersed nonspherical colloidal samples. Self-assembly approaches will be explored to organize the nonspherical building blocks into 3D highly ordered lattices. The optical properties of the crystals with nonspherical lattice points will be also studied. |
