NIRT: Nanostructural Engineering of Complex Functional Particles

这个为期四年的纳米跨学科研究小组（NIRT）项目在新墨西哥州大学，与教授蒂莫西·沃德作为首席研究员，将调查空间工程的结构和多孔复合纳米粒子的组成与功能以前没有实现的潜力。 该研究将集中在粒子的基本支架是一个精确组织的无机（氧化物）纳米结构通过自组装的两亲分子和亲水前体。 二氧化硅/表面活性剂自组装的合成将依赖于蒸发液滴的受限环境内的蒸发诱导自组装（EISA），而不是在本体溶液中进行的成核自组装。 使用EISA技术，四个一般类的粒子结构，一些包含功能组件定位在内部或在粒子的表面，将进行调查。 所得到的功能化纳米颗粒和复合材料可以提供用于感测或治疗剂的储库，所述感测或治疗剂的作用或递送与颗粒表面处的分子识别功能性耦合，并且由通过纳米多孔通道的受控转移介导。

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.