Material assembly from heterogeneously charged nanoparticles – HotCHpot

Next-generation materials and devices composed of colloidal building blocks tailor-made for specific applications will not be fabricated via traditional methods. Instead, they will self-assemble through processes that do not require human intervention and in which instructions for assembly emerge from the nature of the forces acting between constituents. Future materials and devices for photonics, drug delivery devices, and sensors require the self-assembly of synthetic colloidal structures with the precision and reliability of biological self-assembly. Despite enormous advances in the synthesis of a wide assortment of inorganic and organic building blocks of various shapes and sizes, control over their assembly into precise and predictable structures remains the primary obstacle to the bottom-up construction of novel materials and devices from these building blocks. Attaining such control requires several achievements, most notably elucidating the interactions between building blocks, gaining control over these interactions, and understanding how specific types of interactions lead to specific target structures. One emerging approach to confer upon colloidal particles predetermined “instructions” for assembly is to anisotropically decorate the surface of the particles with synthetic organic or biological molecules. This project is aimed at (i) the synthesis of heterogeneously charged nanoparticles, also called Inverse Patchy Colloids (IPCs), with a well-controlled number of patches at their surface; (ii) the theoretical and experimental study of their assembly. To reach these aims, three partners with complementary skills form the HotCHpot consortium: Physical chemists (Partners 1 and 2), and theoreticians (Partner 3). Partners 1 and 2 will take charge of the synthesis and characterization of the patchy particles and will be also in charge of the experimental analysis of the assembly of the particles. The experimental results will be compared with those of simulations performed by Partner 3.