Metal oxide rods and dots-based structures and devices: Cost-effective fabrication and surface chemistry control

The necessity of materials development which is not limited to materials that can achieve their theoretical limits, but makes it possible to raise theoretical limits by changing the fundamental underlying physics and chemistry while keep the fabrication cost to a minimum is crucial. Materials nanotechnologies based on chemical fabrication approaches is one of the immediate answer to the enormous need for cost-effective new materials for energy, environment, and health. R&D and businesses exploiting chemical nanotechnology has the greatest potential to efficiently contribute to such challenging goals. Indeed, the creation of new materials with higher performance and improved stability achieved by atomic, molecular and nanostructural design and control using unique nanoscale phenomena such as quantum confinements is the key. A synthesis involving the aqueous condensation of metal ions from solutions of metal salts for the low-cost fabrication of engineered arrays consisting of oriented nanorods of metal oxides orientations onto various substrates as well as the ability to control the surface acidity of quantum dots from acidic to neutral to basic by size effect are presented.