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SFB 1214:  Anisotropic Particles as Building Blocks: Tailoring Shape, Interactions and Structures

Subject Area Chemistry
Materials Science and Engineering
Physics
Term from 2016 to 2021
Website Homepage
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 268730352
 
The natural world offers a plethora of intriguing examples of materials with excellent performance based on ordered arrangements of different submicron phases. Thus, the remarkable resilience of bone or wood arise from synergistic contributions of the different constituents. A comparable organization of synthetic matter is yet beyond the current state of the art. A potential solution is the formation of bulk solids through an assembly of particles. The character, surface and assembly process of the particles ultimately code and determine the internal structure and thus the properties of the final solid. In comparison to their well-studied spherical isotropic counterparts, particles with anisotropic shape or surface chemistry can create an enormously rich variety of mutual directional interactions and superstructures. The corresponding energy landscape is inherently more complex since relative orientations between neighbors become essential. Assembly processes can take various pathways, resulting in very different superstructures determined by the particle properties.Controlling particle attributes such as shape and surface chemistry is the key to tailor their assembly as structural anisotropy can encode orientation-specific interaction potentials. Since such anisotropy arises both on the level of individual particles and their superstructures, the implications are beyond mere structural properties but can also lead to materials with highly directional optical, electronic, magnetic or chemical properties. This route is opened by mastering structural anisotropy to release the full potential of functional anisotropy. Ultimately, a structured assembly of combinations of different particles will provide materials with new collective properties that greatly surpass a simple superposition of the isolated constituents. In order to harness this vast potential, a control of particle anisotropy and their interactions is the key. To reach these goals, the CRC has built up the required interdisciplinary expertise including synthesis, analysis and theory, as well as the connection of soft and hard matter by close cooperation between chemists and physicists to understand and utilize structural anisotropy controlling functional anisotropy of particles for tailored directional interactions and hierarchical assemblies at all scales (time, size and structure). This includes structures, properties and the important metastable transitional states. By development and combination of experimental and theoretical methods, which are operational at all scales, we strive to understand the role of anisotropy of particle shape, surface and interactions in soft assembly and solid formation, with a focus on the investigation of cooperative properties. This moves the CRC focus towards particle ensembles and their properties and thus finally new advanced particle-based materials.
DFG Programme Collaborative Research Centres

Completed projects

Applicant Institution Universität Konstanz
Spokesperson Professor Dr. Helmut Cölfen (†)
 
 

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