Precise nanoscale arrangements of metallic or semiconducting nanoparticles can produce fascinating new materials with novel electronic or photonic properties.
Potential applications range from displays to storage devices.
A major challenge, however, is how to actually place nanoparticles in these delicate spatial configurations. The aim of the research is to investigate the possibility of using complex mesostructured polymer phases, possessing naturally occurring structure on scales of a few nanometers, as templates to spontaneously arrange the nanoparticles. This group is developing a theoretical understanding of these polymer-nanoparticle mixtures, in collaboration with experimentalists Durning and Levicky in the Dept. of Chemical Engineering. They are trying to understand the equilibrium statistical mechanics of these systems to predict how nanoparticles naturally distribute themselves in lamellar and other phases spontaneously formed by block copolymers. Click here for more details on Prof. O'Shaughnessy' s research.