Dr. Miguel Spuch

Contact

Marie-Curie Fellow, IESL-FORTH

Address:

Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser (IESL)
Foundation for Research & Technology - Hellas (FORTH)
P.O. Box 1385 Vassilika Vouton Heraklion 71110 Greece

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Phone: 30 2810 391874

Fax: 30 2810 391305

Scientific information

Scientific information:

Subject area:

Development of Superparamagnetic Secondary Nanocrystal Structures

Research:

My research is focused on the synthesis of new materials using superparamagnetic colloidal nanocrystal clusters (CNCs) as templates; within this research I am involved in the Marie-Curie project named NANOTAIL, financed by the European Commission. The aim of the NANOTAIL is to design and develop new multi-functional nanocrystals, to understand their formation, their assembly and their properties.

The motivation for such fabrication rests in the magneto-optical properties of the CNCs. The system offers the possibility for monodisperse synthesis of size-controllable nanoscale building blocks giving to the colloid optical response when a (moderate) magnetic field is applied, in effect resulting in a photonic crystal-like behaviour. One of the uses of these secondary structures is their optical switching properties in liquid media.

One of the directions of my work is to discover new materials to get different photonic crystals. In all the cases these new materials can be made with different type of functionalizations of the CNCs, changing the surface interactions with the solvent, between particles and with different surfaces to get superstructures. These functionalizations involve the use of polyelectrolytes, polymers and different surfactants, metallic or semiconductor nanostructures, silica coating etc.

In the search of new CNCs there are some possibilities trying to look for new composites doped with other metals, always exploring materials’ features that could afford different/tunable magnetic-optical response.

 

Career:

9/2004-12/2008: PhD in Chemistry

University of Vigo (Colloid Chemistry Group, Faculty of Chemistry, Spain)
Thesis: “Particulas Coloidales Anisotropas con Funcionalidad Magnetica y Optica” (Anisotropic Colloidal Particles with Optical and Magnetic Functionality)

02/2010-09/2010: Marie Curie ToK-DEV Research Fellow

Institute of Electronic Structure & Laser, (IESL-FORTH, Heraklion, Greece )
Project: Hybrid Nanocrystals

 

Personal:

I like art (digital and freehand), basketball, walking and running.