Fluorinated building blocks for next-generation polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells

The purpose of this thesis is to design, create and study basic building blocks for the construction of self-assembled nanostructured electrodes and membranes for PEMFC. The research described deals with the synthesis of polymerizable fluorosurfactant (1) and its non-polymerizable analogue (2) and the study of their self-assembly properties....

Deterministic nanoassembly of a coupled quantum emitter–photonic crystal cavity system

Controlling the interaction of a single quantum emitter with its environment is a key challenge in quantum optics. Here, we demonstrate deterministic coupling of single nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers to high-quality photonic crystal cavities. We preselect single NV centers and position their 50-nm-sized host nanocrystals into the mode maximum of...

Understanding interactions between capped nanocrystals: Three-body and chain packing effects

Self-assembly of capped nanocrystals (NC) attracted a lot of attention over the past decade. Despite progress in manufacturing of NC superstructures, the current understanding of their mechanical and thermodynamic stability is still limited. For further applications, it is crucial to find the origin and the magnitude of the interactions that...