NIRT: Nanostructural Engineering of Complex Functional Particles

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This four-year Nanoscale Interdisciplinary Research Team (NIRT) project at the University of New Mexico, with Professor Timothy Ward as principal investigator, will investigate the potential to spatially engineer the structure and composition of porous composite nanoparticles with functionalities not previously achieved. The research will focus on particles whose basic scaffolding is a precisely organized inorganic (oxide) nanostructure created by self-assembly of amphiphilic molecules and hydrophilic precursors. The synthesis of silica/surfactant self-assembly will rely on evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) within confined environment of an evaporating droplet as opposed to nucleated self-assembly conducted in bulk solution. Using the EISA technique, four general classes of particle architecture, some containing functional components positioned within or at the surfaces of particles, will be investigated. The resultant functionalized nanoparticles and composites could provide a reservoir for sensing or therapeutic agents whose action or delivery is coupled to molecular recognition functionality at the particle surface and is mediated by controlled transfer through nanoporous channels.