Le diamant de synthèse présente un intérêt croissant pour des applications diverses dans les domaines de l’optique, la catalyse, la biologie ou encore l’électronique. Par dépôt chimique en phase vapeur (CVD) ou par haute pression et haute température (HPHT), il peut être synthétisé sous forme de films. Les particules de diamant sont généralement produites par détonation ou par broyage de diamant massif. Cependant, il n’existe pas actuellement de particules de diamant combinant à la fois sphéricité, monodispersité et qualité cristalline contrôlée. Dans ce contexte, l’objectif de ce travail de thèse est d’élaborer un matériau diamant répondant à ces critères. Pour cela, des cœur-coquilles de diamant nanocristallin sphériques et monodisperses de taille micrométrique ont été synthétisés à partir de billes de silice ensemencées par des nanodiamants. Le revêtement de diamant nanocristallin a été obtenu dans un réacteur CVD spécifique dédié au traitement de poudres. En faisant varier la composition du mélange gazeux, la nature du revêtement a pu être modifiée, du diamant nanocristallin à un matériau hybride composé de nanodiamants enrobés d’une matrice graphitique. Des méthodes de caractérisations complémentaires comme la spectroscopie Raman et le HR-TEM ont permis de déterminer la structure cristalline de ces différents revêtements. Un traitement d’oxydation des cœur-coquilles a permis de les disperser en suspension colloïdale dans l’eau. En utilisant un traitement basique, des sphères creuses ont pu être obtenues et mises en suspension. Des études préliminaires des performances de ces différents matériaux ont ensuite été menées : les propriétés photo-électrocatalytiques pour la réduction du CO2 et la cytotoxicité in vitro pour des applications en biologie. La méthode d’élaboration des cœur-coquilles de diamant mise au point a été enfin étendue à des cœurs magnétiques de maghémite. / Synthetic diamond is now considered in various fields of applications like optics, catalysis, biology or even electronic. Thin films can be synthesized by Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) or by High Pressure/ High Temperature (HPHT), while particles are produced by detonation synthesis or milling of bulk diamond. Nevertheless, among all these diamond materials, there is no material available combining sphericity, monodispersity and crystalline quality. This is the purpose of this thesis work. Core-shell systems made of nanocrystalline diamond shell surrounding a silica core have been synthesized, starting from nanodiamond-seeded silica particles. These particles have been grown in a dedicated home-made CVD reactor, specifically developed to treat powders. Varying the gas composition, the nature of the coating has been tuned, from nanocrystalline diamond to a hybrid material made of nanodiamond particles surrounded by organized graphite. Complementary techniques such as Raman spectroscopy and High Resolution Transmission Electronic Microscopy (HR-TEM) have been used to characterize the crystalline structures. Colloidal suspensions were also obtained with these new diamond core-shells, by oxidation of their surface. Dissolving the silica core, diamond shells were also synthesized, exhibiting stable colloidal properties. Preliminary studies on diamond core-shells performances are also presented in this manuscript: their photocatalytic properties toward CO2 reduction and their in-vitro cytotoxicity considering further biological applications. Finally, the manuscript also reports on the extension of the process to magnetic silica cores for the synthesis of magnetic diamond core-shells.

M. Tech. (Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Applied and Computer Science), Vaal University of Technology / Cadmium and cobalt complexes of urea and thiourea were synthesized using ethanol as a solvent. All complexes were refluxed at 70 - 80 °C, left to cool at room temperature, washed with methanol and acetone to remove impurities and dried at an open environment. The characterization of complexes was done using FTIR spectroscopy, elemental analysis and TGA. The complexes were found to coordination with the ligands through sulphur and oxygen atoms to the metal, instead of nitrogen. These were as results of wavelength shifting from high to low frequency from spectra of the complexes as compare to their free ligands. These observations make these complexes good candidates for the possible use in synthesis of metal sulphides or oxides nanoparticles. Thermogravimetric analyses of all the complexes were conducted to check the stability of use as precursors for nanoparticles at low and high temperature. A number of thiourea and urea complexes with cadmium and cobalt have been prepared and used in the preparation of metal sulphides/oxides nanoparticles. Complexes start to decompose at low temperature about 100°C and the last decomposition step was at about 800-900°C, which is convenient to thermal decomposition of precursors in the high boiling solvents or capping agent to prepare surface capped metal sulphides/oxides nanoparticles. The complexes were easy to synthesize, low cost and stable in air and were obtained in reasonable yields. All the complexes reported in this study have been used as single source molecular precursor in the preparation of cadmium oxide, cadmium sulphide, cobalt oxide, cobalt sulphide nanoparticles (normal) and as mixture of any two complexes to form core-shells nanoparticles. Quality nanoparticles synthesis requires three components: precursors, organic surfactants and solvents. The synthesis of the nanoparticles can be thought of as a nucleation event, followed by a subsequent growth period. Both the nucleation and growth rates were found to be dependent upon factors such as temperature, growth time, and precursor concentration. For a continuous flow system the residence time (at nucleation and growth conditions) was also found to be important. In order to separate the nucleation and growth events, injection techniques were employed to achieve rapid nucleation of nanoparticles with final size dictated by the growth temperature and/or residence time through the growth zone of the reaction system. Good crystalline normal nanoparticles were obtained from thermolysis of the precursors in hexadecylamine (HDA) as the capping agent at fixed concentrations, temperature and time. All nanoparticles showed a blue-shift in band edges with good photoluminescence behaviour which is red-shifted from their respective band edges and XRD patterns, the crystal structure are in hexagonal phase. The particles showed rods, spheres and hexagonal shapes. Nucleation and growth mechanism brings new avenue in nanostructures called core-shells, which have been reported to have improved luminescence, quantum yields, decreased fluorescence lifetimes, and benefits related to the tailoring of the relative band-gap positions between the two materials. In this study cadmium and cobalt complexes of urea and thiourea were separately dispersed in TOP and injected separately (allowing nucleation/core to occur, followed by the shell) in hot HDA at 180ºC for 1hour to yield core-shell nanoparticles. Parameters, such as concentration, temperature and capping molecule as factor affecting nucleation and growth of the core-shells were monitored. The core-shell nanoparticles were characterized by UV/Vis spectroscopy, XRD and TEM. We observed spherical, tripod, bipods, hexagonal and irregular shaped nanoparticle as the concentration of the precursors was increasing, however we were able to form core-shells nanoparticles in one set of experiment 1:3 CdS-CdO, which are assumed to be a reverse type I coreshells nanoparticles. Exciton absorption peaks at higher energy than the fundamental absorption edge of bulk indicate quantum confinement effect in nanoparticles as a consequence of their small size. XRD patterns, crystals range from hexagonal, cubic and mixture of hexagonal and orthorhombic. A low temperature studies were also conducted a mixture of hexagonal and sphererical shapes with sheets like onion morphology were observed. / NRF HUB & SPOKES (VUT)

L’oxyde de zinc dopé de type n est un excellent candidat pour la réalisation de films transparents et isolants thermiques grâce à ses propriétés d’absorption et de réflexion limitées aux domaines UV et IR. La synthèse en milieu polyol de particules nanostructurées d’oxyde de zinc dopé par du gallium a été utilisée afin de maîtriser la morphologie des cristallites. Il a été démontré expérimentalement et théoriquement que le maximum d’efficacité d’absorption IR est atteint pour un taux de dopant de 2,6 % molaire. Des suspensions de haute transmission dans le visible et absorption infrarouge significative ont été obtenues par l’encapsulation des particules avec un matériau fluoré d’indice de réfraction intermédiaire entre l’oxyde et le milieu dispersant, ainsi que par l’optimisation de l’état de dispersion de suspensions colloïdales grâce à l’adsorption de thioalcanes en surface des cristallites de ZnO dopés. / Thanks to its absorption / reflexion properties limited to the UV and the IR range, n-doped zinc oxide is a promising candidate for the elaboration of transparent and insulating films in smart windows. Nanostructured particles of Ga-doped zinc oxide were elaborated by polyol process. Polyol process was used in order to control the size and the morphology of the particles. Both experimental and theoretical data show that a maximum of IR absorption efficiency is obtained for a doping rate of 2.6 molar percent. Colloidal suspensions with high transmission in the visible range combined with significant absorption of the near infrared range were obtained using two strategies. The first one is the encapsulation of the Ga-doped ZnO particles by a fluoride shells with an intermediate refractive index between ZnO and the dispersion medium. The second one is the optimization of the dispersion state of nano-colloidal suspensions thanks to the adsorption of thioalkanes on the Ga-doped ZnO crystallite surfaces.