AMI seminar: Marco Lattuada

Room 170.046, Adolphe Merkle Institute, Marly

Friday, April 16th, 2010  11:00 h

Nanoparticles Self-Assembly: Opportunities and Challenges

Marco Lattuada

ETH Zurich, Institute for Chemical-and Bioengineering

The self-assembly of nanoparticles is one of the most promising research directions in the field of nanotechnology. Its aim is ultimately to design nanoparticles and their interactions to control their combination into organized structures with desired properties. In this presentation, the opportunities and challenges offered by self-assembly are briefly outlined. Then, the most important results obtained during my research activity will be discussed within the framework of self-assembly. The focus will be on three main topics. The first one is the preparation of responsive Janus nanoparticles and their unique self-assembly properties. The second topic covers the preparation of magnetic-polymer composite nanoparticles and their magnetic field-driven organization into anisotropic porous materials. The final topic is a modeling activity of interactions of nanoparticles and clusters with flow fields through Stokesian Dyamics simulations. Finally, the planned research activity will be briefly outlined, focusing on the design and preparation of multicomponent and stimuli-responsive nanoparticles and nanoclusters, with complex functionalization patterns, and the understanding of their self-organization behavior, targeting applications in material science and biotechnology.