Event

Seminar, Professor David Smith: Hard Facts About Soft Matter

Tuesday, October 25, 2016
2:00 p.m.
1302 Chem-Nuc Bldg (MSE Conference Room)
Katie Doyle
301 405 0379
khollan3@umd.edu
https://www.york.ac.uk/chemistry/staff/academic/o-s/dsmith/

Soft matter systems, self-assembled from molecular-scale building blocks, offer a powerful strategy by which we can program and control the nanoworld, from the molecular-level up. 

Dr. Smith will discuss the self-assembly of soft, gel-phase nanomaterials, and learn how molecular structure can be translated into nanoscale architectures through non-covalent supramolecular interactions with a high degree of control. Directed self-assembly can occur within complex mixtures in order to yield multi-component materials with multiple functions. Researchers can use self-assembly methods to create ‘multi-domain’ gel systems which have one gel-phase material assembled in the presence of another, with both spatial and temporal control. Smith's simple approaches to the assembly of multi-component systems generate soft materials with potential applications ranging from pharmaceutical formulation and pollution control to nanoscale electronics and tissue engineering. Dr. Smith will discuss this approach with regard to peptide organogels and also novel hydrogels based on the industrially-relevant 1,3:2,4-dibenzylidenesorbitol (DBS) framework.
 

Audience: Public