Center for Functional Nanomaterials Seminar

Self-assembly of nanoparticles present an excellent tool to bridge the gap between the synthetic “bottom up” and lithographic “top down” approaches.
Nanoparticles provide versatile tools for materials applications as they feature unique electronic, magnetic and optical properties associated with their core material. The present study utilizes the ‘bricks and mortar’ method, where polymers and proteins were used as ‘mortar’ and nanoparticles (gold, iron oxide and iron-platinum) as ‘bricks’. Non-covalent assembly mechanisms were used to create nanocomposite structures and achieving materials with tunable optical and magnetic properties with controlled spacings. In addition, we sought to incorporate inherent biomolecular (protein and DNA) properties into the nanoparticle ensembles, thereby greatly expanding the scope for development of new functional materials. For more advanced structures, the hierarchal patterning of the nanoparticles on di-block polymers as templates were also studied and analyzed.