Harnessing the Power of Chemical Self-Assembly
Design & Synthesis, Characterization and Applications
Chemists can make things. Over the last century, we have been quite successful in mastering the trick of breaking and forming covalent bonds between atoms through chemical reactions, and synthesized thousands of new molecules of any composition to our interest. Complexity of matter in structure and functionality, however, does not stop at the molecular level. Almost everything around us, from double-helix DNA, cells, to living organisms, all involve further organization of molecules by another set of tool box, using a myriad of weak non-covalent bonds – such as van der Waals, electrostatic, H-bonding, p - p stacking and dipole & chiral interactions . With the rise of demanding challenges in today's science and technology, the need for exploring the realm beyond molecules is rapidly growing.
Self-assembly is an intriguing, yet ubiquitous, principle that can generate structural organization at all scales and under any contexts. Self-assembly not only raises scientific questions in revealing the design principles, elucidating the self-assembly structure & properties, and uncovering the mechanism, pathway, energetics & dynamics of the association & dissociation process, but also – as a practical approach - holds great application potentials for a wide variety of emerging technologies.
The Geng lab is interested in the broader aspects of chemical self-assembly, ranging from design & synthesis, characterization to applications. We utilize traditional organic and chemical synthetic tools at the very bottom molecular level, and explore diverse design strategies to fabricate self-assembly structures under various contexts and at different scales. We use a wide variety of modern spectroscopy and microscopy techniques to study the self-assembly mechanism & pathway, and characterize their structures & properties. We also aim to vigorously pursue the applications of chemical self-assembly in the biomedical, functional materials, energy, and nano - technologies. Research program at the Geng lab is highly interdisciplinary and dynamic in nature, and we welcome students and post-docs from different background to join us for the exploration. The current emphasis of our research resides in the following areas:
Advancing Macromolecule Supramolecular Self-assemblies
Supramoelcular assemblies are complexes of molecules held together by non-covalent bonds, desirably into well-defined nano/micron-sized structures. Compared to small molecules, macromolecules have the advantage of being larger in dimension towards further organization, and they also offer high tuning flexibility in the chemical composition, size (molecular weight) and shape (conformation), as well as functional modifications. By spicing up synthetic macromolecule design - such as hybridization with peptides, exploring novel self-assembly mechanism – such as cooperative self-assembly for highly branched dendrimers, and incorporating different self-assembly motif – such as crystallization, we aim to advance supramolecular self-assemblies to a new horizon of sophistication. Current projects include:
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Chemical Self-Assembly of Nano/Micron-sized Objects
Just like supramolecular assembly allowing access from individual molecules to nano/micron-objects, nano/micron-sized structures are also capable of self-assembling into even more complex, larger arrays. As nano/micron-sized objects are of intimate interest to advanced technologies, their potential ordered arrangement and patterning are highly desirable in many application areas. However, as the object size increases significantly from the molecular scale to the nano/micron-scale, new scientific principles in the design and characterization of chemical self-assembly need to be revealed. Current projects include:
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Nature and biology are the ultimate self-assembly system themselves. Scientists, when designing self-assembly, often turn to biology for inspiration, and synthetic self-assemblies can in turn be put back to interact with biological systems for various purposes. We are interested in designing bio-inspired chemical self-assembly systems towards interfacing with biological systems, in seeking of two purposes – to probe better understanding on complex biological processes, and to pursue biomedical applications.
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