Patrick Research Group Nanomaterials Research

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Home Research Liquid crystals Nanomaterials Thin Films Organic electronics Theory & simulation Instrumentation People Current members Hall of fame Awards Photo Album Environs Lab tour City of Bellingham Directions & map Other stuff Publications News stories Getting involved liquid crystal nanomaterial STM scanning tunneling microscopy AFM atomic force microscopy nanoparticle organize order disorder ordered nematic smectic magnetic field electric field organic semiconductor carbon nanotube optical microscopy surface science materials science university research chemistry physics physical chemistry mesogen phase transition publication simulation molecular nano nanometer nanoscience nanomaterial nanotechnology technology patent scanning probe microscopy rhk multimode spm atomic resolution nanometer scale oriented film monolayer David L Patrick David Patrick Dr. Patrick WWU Washington		Nanomaterials research. Nanomaterials are those materials whose structure is controlled at nanometer length-scales. The reason for studying them is that macroscopic properties ultimately originate from microstructural composition and organization, so nanometer-scale control over the identity and arrangement of a material's fundamental building blocks (its constituent atoms or molecules) could one day allow an unprecedented degree of control over macroscopic properties and function. Over the last couple of decades a wide variety of new nanoscale building blocks have been discovered, ranging from fullerenes, to metal and semiconductor nanoparticles, to various designer molecules. One of the next challenges in this field, and the one which our research is aimed at addressing, is how to assemble such building blocks into nanostructured aggregates and larger units with engineered (i.e. controlled) organization. To address the challenge of organizing matter at nanometer length scales, our group has developed a method called liquid crystal imprinting, in which liquid crystal solvents are used to impart order on molecules and particles. Their order can be controlled using external electric and magnetic fields, and the method is relatively independent of the building block's identity. Liquid crystal imprinting enables control over material structure by depositing building blocks as layers onto a supporting substrate. The LC dictates the orientation of the solute building blocks (which may be molecules or small particles), and the LC in turn is influenced by the magnetic field. Together these interactions permit control over building block orientation, even if the building block does not interact directly with the field itself. Using this approach, we have prepared nanostructured materials composed of a variety of building blocks in which organization is controlled with unprecedented precision. References Getting Organized at the Nanoscale with Liquid Crystal Solvents, D. L. Patrick, F. Scott Wilkinson, T. L. Fegurgur, Proc. SPIE, 5936, 5936A (2005). Preprint Controlling the Orientation of Micron-Sized Rod-Shaped SiC Particles with Nematic Liquid Crystal Solvents, M. D. Lynch, Chem. Mat. 16, 762 (2004). PDF Organizing Carbon Nanotubes with Liquid Crystal Solvents, M. Lynch, D. L. Patrick, Nanolett., 2, 1197 (2002). Science Magazine news story PDF	Liquid crystal imprinting. ... was developed in our group to organize materials at the nanoscale. Oriented carbon nanotubes. Oriented molecules.