Center for Functional Nanomaterials Seminar

Self-assembled gels and liquid crystals are one of the few examples from ‘soft functional nanomaterials’. Gels represent one example of soft nanomaterials, whereby the self-assembly of low molecular weight amphiphiles into nanoscale fibers that entangle to form three dimensional (3D) fibrous networks resulting in the macromolecular organization of liquids into solid or semi-solid gels. Liquid crystals are known to find applications in wide range of fields, and well-known in display devices. Recently, enormous interest is growing in developing highly stable and homogeneous methods to synthesize organic-inorganic hybrid materials by doping metal nanoparticles into either gels or liquid crystal materials. However, there are no procedures to synthesize nanoparticles by using in situ methods in soft materials. First time, we developed a novel approach to synthesize gold nanoparticles (GNPs) in situ using urea-based gelators and aniline-based liquid crystal forming mesogens. These gelators and mesogens were successfully used for the first time in the synthesis of gold nanoparticles as reducing and capping agents. In situ generation of GNPs in hydrogels produced GNPs decorated sheets. Shape selective GNPs synthesis and their alignment using liquid crystal forming mesogens were demonstrated. I will be discussing about detailed design, synthesis and characterization of these novel hybrid materials using several techniques such as 1H-NMR, X-ray diffraction, transmission and scanning electron microscopy.