Design Principles for Nanocrystal Assembly Using Anisotropic Building Blocks

Abstract

Self-assembly of soft matter is a phenomena that can be influenced by multiple factors including particle shape, ligand decoration and thermodynamic properties such as temperature and pressure. In this highly anisotropic landscape of particle properties, it is crucial to understand the set of attributes that can contribute to the self-assembly of nanomaterials with novel physical properties including photonic and plasmonic response to be utilized in materials application.

We determine and then employ different set of design rules that allow us to govern the nanoarchitecture that results from the assembly. We demonstrate that topologically protected colloidal matter at maximum pressure preserves topological order that can persist when no longer at maximum pressure, and that this is general to systems that can be described via topological sets of nanoparticle packings. We also show that the self-assembly of regular, patchy polygons with highly anisotropic patch distribution can be controlled into selecting specific desired morphologies with novel void shape, and that hierarchical self-assembly can be applied for even more complicated structures. Lastly, we show how ligand architecture can control the self-assembly behavior of nanoplates, and that ligand coated nanoplates can have controllable orientation in the plane when subjected to similar ligated cubes. This dissertation delivers roadmaps for the rational design of specific and highly targeted materials with tunable physical features and will help to realize new materials with complex order in experiment.