Photoresponsive materials self-assembled from anisotropic nanoparticles

Basic data for this project

Type of project: Individual project
Duration: 01/04/2013 - 31/03/2016 | 1st Funding period

Description

The aim of this project is the preparation of photoresponsive materials via self-organisation of multifunctional nanoparticles. The key nanoscale building blocks are divalent, trivalent and tetravalent nanoparticles, which will be prepared by a sandwich printing method. This versatile method will be expanded with alignment and non-symmetric site-selective functionalization using wrinkled templates. Different sites on the nanoparticles can be addressed using combinations of planar and wrinkled substrates to obtain a highly diverse library of site-selectively functionalized patchy particles. Such multifunctional particles will allow the self-assembly of complex structures beyond typical morphologies known for aggregates of conventional Janus particles. The noncovalent interaction of the recognition units is photoresponsive, and hence the patch-to-patch interaction of the nanoparticles is photocontrolled.

Keywords: Photoresponsive; anisotropic; nanoparticles