Tech
Nanotech Self-Assembly Enables Novel Soft Materials With Special Properties
Staff Reporter
First Posted: Aug 11, 2013 10:54 PM EDT
First Posted: Aug 11, 2013 10:54 PM EDT
In order to help materials engineers to make ever better fabrics and soft materials from novel composites, scientists in the EU are developing design tools and tailor-made functions for soft materials that will soon be possible with cost- and energy-efficient controlled self-assembly.
Nanoparticles (NPs), materials on the scale of billionths of a metre, often have properties much different from those of the same material in bulk form. Their incorporation into composites is poised to revolutionise material design.
Self-assembly of nanoparticles (NPs) is an interesting phenomenon that, if suitably controlled, is making large-scale, cost-effective manufacture of tailor-made nano-based composites a real possibility. Scientists initiated the EU-funded project 'Toolbox for directed and controlled self-assembly of nano-colloids' (NANODIRECT) to help materials scientists and engineers do just that.
Gold and silver NPs are particularly interesting for their properties relating to light manipulation (plasmonic properties). Scientists have directed their self-assembly into hierarchical structures using a microscopic template with regular geometries and achieved excellent control over very specific optical responses. Gold nanorods formed end-to-end interactions and self-assembly into standing superlattices.
Rod-like virus particles have been chemically modified to control their properties, behaving like sticky rod-like colloids to study the effects of particle shape on gel properties. The modified viruses are now being used as model systems in soft condensed matter physics. Polymeric NPs with a dumbbell shape have also been synthesised and studied, and a simple yet versatile method for directed self-assembly of anisometric polymeric particles has been developed.
Given the need for exquisite control of self-assembly in order to tailor properties, NANODIRECT is complementing conventional chemical directing methods with the use of different fields and templating agents. Ultimately, scientists expect to deliver a novel toolbox to aid materials engineers in the design of nano-based colloidal composites with high impact in emerging applications, including plasmonics. -- © European Union, CORDIS
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