New materials promise major advances across the spectrum of nano applications, as techniques created through nano research enable atom-scale control in making materials for particular properties. NanoCenter researchers are adept at making new materials by mastering their chemistry and in optimizing multi-component materials through rapid-discovery strategies, including modeling from molecular to macro scales and combinatorial experiments which interrogate the performance across a spectrum of material parameters simultaneously. Related efforts build on this to create nanostructures from multiple materials, aiming the design of both the materials and structures made from them at the functions needed for important nanotechnology applications.
The collaborative team led by the Nie group is focusing on the spontaneous organization of hierarchically structured functional materials by designing and engineering competing weak forces among colloidal building blocks.
