Terhi Hirvikorpi

High surface area nanostructured tubes prepared by dissolution of ALD-coated electrospun fibers

Novel nanostructured and high surface area tubular materials were produced combining electrospinning and atomic layer deposition processes with the removal of polymeric template via dissolution. The dissolution process changed the structure of the tube walls, and the smooth atomic layer deposition coating was transformed into a highly complex, coral-like structure. This material, which we have called “nanocoral,” has a relatively high surface area, 323xa0m2xa0g−1, due to the interconnected cavities formed after the removal of the template. This kind of material has important potential applications, for example, in the fields of catalysts and filtration.

Atomic Layer Deposition of Thin Inorganic Coatings onto Renewable Packaging Materials

Biopolymers play still a relatively minor role in the packaging material markets. For this to grow further there are problems to be solved, such as inadequate barrier properties and moisture sensitivity. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is one potential solution. Atomic layer deposition is a layer-by-layer thin film deposition process based on self-limiting gas-solid reactions. It is well suited for producing pinhole free barrier coatings uniform in thickness at relatively mild process conditions. The purpose of this presentation is to summarize our recent work done concerning atomic layer deposition of thin aluminum oxide layers onto biopolymers.