Programmable Nanoscale Assembly
One of the fundamental problems in bottom-up assembly of nanomaterials is difficulty creating arbitrary designed architectures from functionally relevant nanoscale blocks. This problem limits how we build targeted materials, integrate nanoscale blocks and manufacture nanoscale devices.
Engineered Nanoscale Biomaterials
Novel approaches are required for generating new biologically and chemically active biomaterials. For example, it is advantageous to establish methods for organizing proteins into designed 2D and 3D arrays, which remains a challenge for traditional protein crystallization. The capability to design controllable protein supramolecular structures can allow accumulation of a wealth of information (e.g., structure, genetics, function) onto a single structure, leading to a broad spectrum of application in nanotechnology, biomimetics and nanomedicine.
Self-Assembled Optical Self-Assembled Optical Nanomaterial
Architectured nanoparticle systems with light emitting and light absorbing nanoscale components, such as plasmonic nanoparticles and quantum dots, offer novel optical properties due to the collective effects. However, in order to realize tunable optical responses from such hetero-nanoparticle systems, well-defined nano-architectures with targeted nanoparticle arrangements have to be fabricated.