Soft matter materials chemistry

纳米技术，在其最一般的意义上，意味着对纳米尺度(10^-9到10^-7米)的物质的控制，超出单个分子(&lt；2 nm)和小分子组件(&lt；10纳米)。当许多团体将他们的努力集中在微型设备的开发上时，我们的目标是将纳米结构材料集成到可见尺寸的器件中。我们现在面临的挑战是如何将纳米长度尺度上的材料结构的局部控制扩展到毫米和厘米长度尺度，以及如何将这些信息化学印记到分子结构中。我们的方法效仿自然，采用自组织。我们小组目前的研究工作可以分为两个主要方面：(1)开发用于光伏器件的新型有机半导体和基于自组织芳香分子的低成本塑料电子以及用于金属和金属氧化物表面的功能有机涂层，(2)开发金属纳米粒子作为导电胶和催化剂等功能材料的构建块。

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.