Soft matter materials chemistry

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Nanotechnology, in its most general sense, implies the control over matter on a nanometre length scale (10^-9 to 10^-7 metres), beyond the size of individual molecules (< 2 nm) and small molecular assemblies (< 10 nm).  While many groups focus their efforts on the development of miniaturized devices, we aim for the integration of nano-structured materials into devices of visible sizes.  The challenge we now face is how to extend the local control over the materials structure on a nanometre length scale to millimetre and centimetre length-scales and how to chemically imprint this information into a molecular structure.  Our approach follows nature's example and employs self-organization.Present research efforts in our group may be divided into two main areas: (1) the development of new organic semiconductors for photovoltaic devices and low cost plastic electronics based on self-organizing aromatic molecules as well as functional organic coatings for metal and metal oxide surfaces, (2) the development of metal nanoparticles as building blocks for functional materials such as conductive adhesives and catalysts.