Structure Elucidation Of Shear Oriented Ionic Self-Assembled Materials (SISAM)

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Markus Antonietti
• Subject Area: Physical Chemistry of Molecules, Liquids and Interfaces, Biophysical Chemistry
• Term: from 2003 to 2008
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5414265

Self-organization is a concept to render nanoscale structures. The structure formation tends to be local only, unless additional fields are applied to mutually align the structures and to suppress grain boundaries. In this proposal a multidisciplinary approach is presented to investigate the macroscopic shear alignment of highly ordered self-organised nano-structures synthesized via the ionic self-assembly (ISA) route. This synthesis route provides the possibility to organise a variety of functional molecules into nano-structures. Dynamic rheooptical measurements are applied to gain insight about the orientation mechanisms. In-situ and ex-situ Small Angle X-ray scattering will be applied to elucidate fine structural details of such aligned systems. The three groups (with their respective backgrounds in physics, polymer physics and colloid chemistry) have been active in the field of self-organising nano-structures over the last few years and present a research team with a variety of skills and expertise centred on supramolecular materials. It is the aim of this collaborative research effort to combine these skills to obtain further insight into the build-up of useful macroscopic properties of nanostructured materials throughout the self-organisation process from the molecular level.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Finland, Netherlands
• Participating Persons: Professor Dr. Gerrit ten Brinke; Professor Dr. Charl F.J. Faul; Professor Dr. Olli Ikkala