Prof. dr. Roy Shenhar from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem will visit the School of Mathematics and Physics between 25th and 28th of January. As part of this visit he will give a seminar on Monday the 25th of January 2016, 3 pm (room ENG210 in Engineering hub, building 13 on the uni map). His presentation will be on his experimental designs involving block copolymer films; the title and abstract are

Hierarchically-Ordered Nanoparticle/Block Copolymer Films: Increasing Our Control over Morphological Parameters

The ability to organize metal and semiconductor nanoparticles into ordered arrays represents a major challenge in nanotechnology, and bears the potential to advance applications such as sensing and photovoltaics beyond their current performance limits. Current approaches rely on lithographically defined patterns for directing nanoparticle assembly. Block copolymers (polymers consisting of different sequences of chemically distinct monomers), which phase separate into periodic structures at the nanoscale, provide a bottom-up alternative to lithographic methods by serving as organizing templates for ordered nanoparticle assembly.

Tailoring the surface chemistry of the nanoparticles enables to direct them into desired domains of the copolymer or to the interfaces between the copolymer phases, but the resulting structures are still rather simple. Our goal is to create more elaborate, hierarchical nanoparticle assemblies, with increased control over morphological parameters. The presentation will discuss the factors that govern nanoparticle/block copolymer assembly and elaborate on design principles that enable controlling some of the important structural attributes of the assembly.