General Lab Information

Soft and Bio Nanomaterials

  • Soft and Bio Nanomaterials Group at Brookhaven's Center for Functional Nanomaterials

    December 5, 2016

    Group leader Oleg Gang talks about the methods his group develops to direct the self-assembly of nanoscale systems from organic and inorganic components into functional materials with desired properties.

Novel methods for system fabrication are required in order to build materials and devices that can take advantage of rich variety nanoparticles that are now became available. Approaches based on self-assembly of systems from nano-components might offer tremendous cost advantages and almost a magical ease of manufacturing compared to lithographic methods. Besides, a self-assembly can address tasks that are intrinsically challenging for conventional lithography processes, like, a fabrication of thee dimensional architectures or structures containing pre-fabricated nano-components.

The main goal of the CFN’s Soft and Bio-Nanomaterials Theme is development methods for assembly of hybrid nanoscale systems from organic and inorganic nanoscale components, understanding phenomena driving structure formation and energy-conversion properties of these materials. Our approach for system assembly is based the unique properties of macromolecules, such as the recognition, re-configurability, and reversibility of interactions, which are used to direct and regulated self-assembly of nano-objects into functional materials with optical, electrical, magnetic and bio-sensing functions.

Associated Group Facilities

Advanced UV and X-ray Probes
In-situ structural characterization can be performed for surfaces, thin films nanoparticles, biological complexes, nanofabricated structures and hybrid composites under environmental condition.

Advanced Optics Spectroscopy & Microscopy
A broad range of optical methods is available for characterization of energy transfer phenomena down to single molecular/particle level. Our capabilities include time- and spectrally resolved bulk/single molecule confocal fluorescence microscopy and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy.

Synthesis and Characterization Facility
Capabilities include techniques and methods required for the synthesis, fabrication and study of novel hybrid structures and functionalities using regulated nanoscale assembly and self-organization approaches. Capabilities and expertise include solution-based synthesis and characterization of a variety of soft, biological, hybrid and inorganic nanomaterials. We utilize the range of x-ray, optical, spectroscopic and scanning probe methods for structure characterization.