Speaker
Description
With regard to the increasing need for sustainable energy, developing strategies to exploit solar energy become more and more important. Inspired by natural systems it is highly promising to self-assemble building blocks into functional supramolecular units.
Electrostatic self-assembly leads to nanoscale shapes ranging from spheres and cylinders over vesicles to networks. Key to a targeted structure design is to fundamentally understand structure directing effects. In this regard, crucial insight has been gained from small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) at D11@ILL, alongside with other methods such as static and dynamic light scattering (SLS, DLS), atomic force microscopy (AFM), spectroscopy, zeta-potnatial measurements and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC). Structure directing effects encoding the supramolecular nanoscale structure, in particular the particle particle size and shape on a 10-100 nm level, will be discussed. In particular, thermodynamics and the interplay of interaction forces are key to connect the molecular building block features with the nanoscale assembly properties.
In addition, we describe light-triggered size and shape changes of electrostatically self-assembled supramolecular nanostructures, following different strategies. This route for the conversion of light into structural and mechanical effects is promising for applications in drug delivery, nanosensors and solar energy conversion.
