IEM Distinguished Lecturers Seminar: Bio-Inspired Self-Assembled Chiral Architecture for Optics and Plasmonics
*** Drinks and pizza at 11:45 in the lobby of BM 5202 ***
Abstract
Chirality transfer across length scales is an intriguing and universal phenomenon. Both in nature and in materials science, complex architectures composed of bio-based chiral building blocks are responsible for unique optical responses from bright and vivid colourations to extremely large dichroism. When it comes to working with naturally derived chiral building blocks, however, the challenge lies in understanding how the properties of individual building blocks relate to the emergent features of large-scale architectures and structures. Our research addresses this gap by investigating the origins of mesophase chirality in bio-derived particles such as cellulose and chitin nanocrystal suspensions. Through a combination of quantitative morphological analysis of individual nanoparticles, final architecture, and their assemblies, we showcase the functionality of such chiral materials in the context of optical materials, including plasmonic ones, also providing examples of how such materials can be produced at scale.
Bio
Silvia Vignolini is the Director of the Sustainable and Bio-inspired Materials Department at the Max Plank for Colloid and Interfaces in Potsdam and a University Professor in Sustainability and Bio-inspired materials at the Chemistry Department in Cambridge. She studied Physics at the University of Florence, Italy. In 2009, she was awarded a PhD in Solid State Physics at the European Laboratory for non-Linear Spectroscopy and the Physics Department at the University of Florence. In 2010, she moved to Cambridge as a post-doctoral research associate working in the Cavendish Laboratory and the Plant Science Department. Her research interest lies at the interface of chemistry, soft-matter physics, optics, and biology. In particular, her research focuses on the study of how biopolymers are assembled into complex architectures within living organisms and how they can be exploited to fabricate a sustainable functional materials.
Abstract
Chirality transfer across length scales is an intriguing and universal phenomenon. Both in nature and in materials science, complex architectures composed of bio-based chiral building blocks are responsible for unique optical responses from bright and vivid colourations to extremely large dichroism. When it comes to working with naturally derived chiral building blocks, however, the challenge lies in understanding how the properties of individual building blocks relate to the emergent features of large-scale architectures and structures. Our research addresses this gap by investigating the origins of mesophase chirality in bio-derived particles such as cellulose and chitin nanocrystal suspensions. Through a combination of quantitative morphological analysis of individual nanoparticles, final architecture, and their assemblies, we showcase the functionality of such chiral materials in the context of optical materials, including plasmonic ones, also providing examples of how such materials can be produced at scale.
Bio
Silvia Vignolini is the Director of the Sustainable and Bio-inspired Materials Department at the Max Plank for Colloid and Interfaces in Potsdam and a University Professor in Sustainability and Bio-inspired materials at the Chemistry Department in Cambridge. She studied Physics at the University of Florence, Italy. In 2009, she was awarded a PhD in Solid State Physics at the European Laboratory for non-Linear Spectroscopy and the Physics Department at the University of Florence. In 2010, she moved to Cambridge as a post-doctoral research associate working in the Cavendish Laboratory and the Plant Science Department. Her research interest lies at the interface of chemistry, soft-matter physics, optics, and biology. In particular, her research focuses on the study of how biopolymers are assembled into complex architectures within living organisms and how they can be exploited to fabricate a sustainable functional materials.
Practical information
- General public
- Free