Home > Press > University of Florida chemists pioneer new technique for nanostructure assembly
Abstract:
A team of researchers from the University of Florida department of chemistry has developed a new technique for growing new materials from nanorods.
University of Florida chemists pioneer new technique for nanostructure assembly
Gainesville, FL | Posted on October 18th, 2012
Materials with enhanced properties engineered from nanostructures have the potential to revolutionize the marketplace in everything from data processing to human medicine. However, attempts to assemble nanoscale objects into sophisticated structures have been largely unsuccessful. The UF study represents a major breakthrough in the field, showing how thermodynamic forces can be used to manipulate growth of nanoparticles into superparticles with unprecedented precision.
The study is published in the Oct. 19 edition of the journal Science.
"The reason we want to put nanoparticles together like this is to create new materials with collective properties," said Charles Cao, associate professor of chemistry at UF and corresponding author of the study. "Like putting oxygen atoms and hydrogen atoms together in a two-to-one ratio - the synergy gives you water, something with properties completely different from the ingredients themselves."
In the UF study, a synergism of fluorescent nanorods, sometimes used as biomarkers in biomedical research, resulted in a superparticle with an emission polarization ratio that could make it a good candidate for use in creating a new generation of polarized LEDs, used in display devices like 3-D television.
"The technology for making the single nanorods is well established," said Tie Wang, a postdoctoral researcher at UF and lead author of the study. "But what we've lacked is a way to assemble them in a controlled fashion to get useful structures and materials."
The team bathed the individual rods in a series of liquid compounds that reacted with certain hydrophobic regions on the nanoparticles and pushed them into place, forming a larger, more complex particle.
Two different treatments yielded two different products.
"One treatment gave us something completely unexpected -- these superparticles with a really sophisticated structure unlike anything we've seen before," Wang said.
The other yielded a less complex structure that Wang, and his colleagues were able to grow it into a small square of polarized film about one quarter the size of a postage stamp.
The researchers said that the film could be used to increase efficiency in polarized LED television and computer screens by up to 50 percent, using currently available manufacturing techniques.
"I've worked in nanoparticle assembly for a decade," said Dmitri Talapin, an associate professor of chemistry at the University of Chicago who was not involved with the study. "There are all sorts of issues to be overcome when assembling building blocks from nanoscale particles. I don't think anyone has been able to get them to self-assemble into superparticles like this before."
"They have achieved a tour-de-force in precision and control," he said.
####
For more information, please click here
Contacts:
Writer:
Donna Hesterman
352-846-2573
Sources:
Charles Cao
352-392-9839
Tie Wang
352-392-7261
Copyright © University of Florida
If you have a comment, please
Contact us.
Issuers of news releases, not 7th Wave, Inc. or Nanotechnology Now, are solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.
Bookmark:
News and information
How do cold ions slide May 24th, 2013
Heinrich Rohrer dies at 79; a father of nanotechnology: With IBM colleague Gerd Binnig, Rohrer invented the scanning tunneling microscope, which can show individual atoms on a surface and move them around May 23rd, 2013
Gold nanocrystal vibration captured on billion-frames-per-second film May 23rd, 2013
Glowing Plant Releases Maker Kit, Enabling Anyone to Make a Glowing Plant at Home: Glowing Plant seeks funds via crowdfunding and raises almost $400,000 May 23rd, 2013
Display technology/LEDs/SS Lighting/OLEDs
IDTechEx launches online Market Intelligence Portal May 23rd, 2013
Innovation could bring flexible solar cells, transistors, displays May 22nd, 2013
Solid-State Lighting Expert Dr. Bernhard Stapp Named To Board of Pioneering LED Technology Developer Aledia: Former OSRAM General Manager and CTO Has Played Key Role In Industry’s Evolution, Will Aid Aledia’s Move Towards Industrialization May 22nd, 2013
Atomic-Scale Investigations Solve Key Puzzle of LED Efficiency: MIT and Brookhaven Lab scientists use electron microscopy imaging techniques to settle a solid-state controversy and raise new experimental possibilities May 22nd, 2013
Chemistry
Study Led by George Washington University Professor Provides Better Understanding of Water’s Freezing Behavior at Nanoscale May 21st, 2013
Penn engineers' nanoantennas improve infrared sensing May 20th, 2013
Iranian Scientists Use Pomegranate Juice to Produce Copper Iodide Nanostructure May 14th, 2013
Chemistry breakthrough sheds new light on illness and health May 12th, 2013
Molecular Machines
Conceptual Nanomedical Lipofuscin Removal Strategy April 29th, 2013
A giant step toward miniaturization: Nanotechnology transforms molecular beams into functional nano-devices with controlled atomic architectures April 3rd, 2013
ASU Biodesign Institute scientists develop innovative twists to DNA nanotechnology March 21st, 2013
Reversible assembly leads to tiny encrypted messages March 11th, 2013
Molecular Nanotechnology
Graphene joins the race to redefine the ampere May 12th, 2013
Conceptual Nanomedical Lipofuscin Removal Strategy April 29th, 2013
A giant step toward miniaturization: Nanotechnology transforms molecular beams into functional nano-devices with controlled atomic architectures April 3rd, 2013
ASU Biodesign Institute scientists develop innovative twists to DNA nanotechnology March 21st, 2013
Chip Technology
Researchers Stitch Defects into the World’s Thinnest Semiconductor May 22nd, 2013
Whirlpools on the Nanoscale Could Multiply Magnetic Memory: At the Advanced Light Source, Berkeley Lab scientists join an international team to control spin orientation in magnetic nanodisks May 22nd, 2013
Imec and GLOBALFOUNDRIES collaborate to advance high-density memory technology: STT-MRAM offers enhanced performance and scalability for embedded and standalone applications May 21st, 2013
Penn engineers' nanoantennas improve infrared sensing May 20th, 2013
Self Assembly
Beautiful "flowers" self-assemble in a beaker: Elaborate nanostructures blossom from a chemical reaction perfected at Harvard May 17th, 2013
DNA-Guided Assembly Yields Novel Ribbon-Like Nanostructures: Approach could be useful in fabricating new kinds of materials with engineered properties May 16th, 2013
Production of Sensitive Hydrogen Peroxide Biosensor Using Silver Nanoparticles April 26th, 2013
Scientists see nanoparticles form larger structures in real time April 22nd, 2013
Nanomedicine
UofL scientists uncover how grapefruits provide a secret weapon in medical drug delivery May 22nd, 2013
Single-Cell Transfection Tool Enables Added Control for Biological Studies: McCormick researchers develop method of delivering molecules into targeted cells May 22nd, 2013
How Gold Nanoparticles Can Help Fight Ovarian Cancer May 21st, 2013
MU Researchers Develop Radioactive Nanoparticles that Target Cancer Cells: This is an early step toward developing therapies for metastasized cancers, MU scientist says May 21st, 2013
Discoveries
How do cold ions slide May 24th, 2013
Gold nanocrystal vibration captured on billion-frames-per-second film May 23rd, 2013
Whirlpools on the Nanoscale Could Multiply Magnetic Memory: At the Advanced Light Source, Berkeley Lab scientists join an international team to control spin orientation in magnetic nanodisks May 22nd, 2013
Bacterial spare parts filter antibiotic residue from groundwater May 22nd, 2013
Announcements
How do cold ions slide May 24th, 2013
Heinrich Rohrer dies at 79; a father of nanotechnology: With IBM colleague Gerd Binnig, Rohrer invented the scanning tunneling microscope, which can show individual atoms on a surface and move them around May 23rd, 2013
Gold nanocrystal vibration captured on billion-frames-per-second film May 23rd, 2013
Glowing Plant Releases Maker Kit, Enabling Anyone to Make a Glowing Plant at Home: Glowing Plant seeks funds via crowdfunding and raises almost $400,000 May 23rd, 2013