Abstract

The last decade experienced significant advances in wet chemistry approaches to synthesize nanoparticles of various chemical compositions and morphologies. Metal, semiconductor and magnetic nanoparticles of different shapes and sizes have been produced and are being currently explored in many applications across disciplines. Moreover, there was a great advance in new protocols to functionalize nanomaterials.

Nanomaterials functionalized with biological molecules such as DNA , small peptides and proteins opened up avenues for nanoparticle applications in biomedicine. On the other hand, nanomaterials coated with polymers and small molecules are exploited in applications related to energy, catalysis and sensing.

The vast availability of functional nanomaterials resulted in exploring new strategies for their organization into larger structures. Strategies for directing the assembly of nanoparticles into larger structures is a visionary approach for developing mesoscopic multifunctional materials. Being able to control the design of these materials by guiding the organization of nanoparticles allows one to envisage the creation of advanced materials with co-operative properties deriving from the types of nanoparticles making up the structure.

In this talk I will present several recent strategies that we have developed in our group to direct the assembly of different nanomaterials.