Shape Controlled Synthesis of
Organic π-conjugated Nanoparticles

This project aims to develop a rational synthetic approach to control the shape of organic π-conjugated particles. The design rules for shape controlled synthesis of organic nanoparticles is relatively  less understood compared to metal nanoparticles. Polyhedral particles of different shape are useful to control the assembly and charge/energy transport at mesosocale, and also open the door for novel photonic materials. 

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Previous work had relied on the use of aliphatic amphiphiles which lack structural diversity and thus do not provide a range of amphiphile-particle facet interaction energies and result in a limited range of particle shapes. Our work is focused on the design, synthesis and use of novel aryl amphiphiles as shape-directors. By modulating the aryl hydrophobe structure, the interaction energies of the amphiphile-particle facets are varied, thus changing the relative growth rate of the different facets and resulting in a range of different particle shapes.