Multicomponent and Dissipative Self-Assembly Approaches: Towards functional materials

The use of self-assembly has proven to be a powerful approach to create smart and functional materials and has led to a vast variety of successful examples. However, the full potential of self-assembly has not been reached. Despite the number of successful artificial materials based on self-assembly, the corresponding structures do not compete...

The assembly of flexible polystyrene-block-poly(ethylene oxide) wormlike micelles from chloroform droplets by the ‘emulsification and solvent evaporation’ method

Flexible wormlike micelles show promising results in their application as drug carriers in the field of targeted drug delivery. A method introduced to produce wormlike micelles is the ‘emulsification and solvent evaporation’ method, but the formation mechanism behind this method is not yet fully understood. The aim of this work is to study...

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...

Dry self-alignment for discrete components: Exploiting combinations of electrostatic fields and mechanical features

The assembly of microsystem chips in industrial practices is commonly done by means of a single pick-and-place operation. Despite its high process reliability, this operation is a serial process that cannot compete with the efficiency of the inherent batch-processing capability of the microsystem fabrication. Besides, the speed of a pick-and...

Self-assembly and semiconductivity of an oligothiophene supergelator

A bis(trialkoxybenzamide)-functionalized quaterthiophene derivative was synthesized and its self-assembly properties in solution were studied. In non-polar solvents such as cyclohexane, this quaterthiophene ?-system formed fibril aggregates with an H-type molecular arrangement due to synergistic effect of hydrogen bonding and ?-stacking. The...

Engineering soft nanostructured functional materials via orthogonal chemistry

Nanostructured amphiphilic block copolymers, graft copolymers, polymeric thermally responsive molecular brushes and polymer stars are only few examples of macromolecular architectures accessible either via controlled/living radical polymerization (CLRP) techniques or the combination of CLRP mechanisms with efficient post-polymerization routes...

Curved Amphipathic Oligothiophenes: Curvature directed S.A. with applications in energy transfer systems and membrane curvature detection in living cells

We have designed and synthesised a new class of molecules which self-assemble based on hydrophobic interactions with an additional driving force for influencing the overall aggregate morphology, namely, molecular curvature. The structure is build from subunits which are substituted with either hydrophilic or hydrophobic substituents. In water,...

Highly Mobile Triphenylene Based Organogel Networks

Organogels and liquid crystals are both well known classes of materials covering a broad spectrum of molecules, structures and morphologies. In this thesis characterization of novel triphenylene based organogels is described in connection with the mesomorphic liquid crystalline properties of the pure materials. In the course of this study...

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...

Passive Airflow Based Self-assembly of Silicon Chips on Foils

Fundamentals of tri-block copolymer self-assembly in solutions, and its relation to nano-templating

The purpose of this thesis is to obtain a better understanding of the formation mechanism of mesoporous silica materials, such as SBA-15 that use block copolymers as templating agents. Despite the fact that these materials are now extensively synthesized, the fundamental role of the different synthesis variables has not been determined on the...

X-ray investigation of buried SiGe islands for devices with strain-enhanced mobility

In this work self-organized SiGe islands are used as stressors for Si capping layers, which later act as carrier channels in field effect transistors. To be able to address individual islands and to obtain a sufficiently narrow distribution of their properties, the SiGe islands are grown by molecular beam epitaxy on prepatterned Si substrates,...

Aerosol assisted synthesis of nanostructured silica

Zeolites are microporous aluminosilicates that have broad applications especially in industrial processes like fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC) owing to their unique properties with respect to both activity and selectivity. However, the micropores of zeolites may in some cases limit their catalytic performance due to restricted molecular...

Phase behavior of flowerlike micelles in a SCF cell model

We study the interactions between flowerlike micelles, self-assembled from telechelic associative polymers, using a molecular self-consistent field (SCF) theory and discuss the corresponding phase behavior. In these calculations we do not impose properties such as aggregation number, micellar structure and number of bridging chains. Adopting a...

(100)-textured self-assembled square-shaped polycrystalline silicon grains by multiple shot excimer laser crystallization

Strong preference for (100) surface and in-plane orientations has been observed in polycrystalline silicon film on SiO2 after crystallization with multiple excimer laser pulses. Laser induced periodic surface structure (LIPSS) is developed in the film, constructing self-assembled square-shaped grains. The clear texture can be observed in a...

Electrical transport measurements on self-assembled organic molecular wires

The electrical properties of supermolecular assemblies of oligo(p-phenylene vinylene) were studied. These materials self-assemble into well-defined cylindrical structures in solution with lengths in the range of 100?nm–10??m and diameters between 5 and 200?nm. Atomic force microscopy showed that by adjusting the concentration, either individual...

Single-Electron and Molecular Devices

The exponential downscaling of (sub-) microelectronic devices known as Mooreâs law will continue in all likelihood for the next two decades. Transistors with lengths below 10 nm have already been successfully demonstrated. However, once the length of transistors will have been reduced to only a couple of nanometers, present-day CMOS technology...