Nanocrystals old

The advancement of nanotechnology lies in the design of new materials that exhibit novel or superior properties to the systems currently available. Colloidal nanocrystals (NCs) represent very attractive building blocks to create new materials with tuneable chemical and physical properties and as such they have a great potential to produce multi- functional systems with enhanced technological added value. Demonstrated examples entail novel nanoscale architectures of core@shell or dimer type fluorescent and magnetic particles, metal and semiconductor tipped nanorods, as well as bimetallic particles. We investigate the chemical specificity of molecule-based, structure directing agents in allowing control over the nanocrystal size/shape and study the finite-size effects on the physical properties of such nanoscale systems. On another account NCs are assembled into secondary structures (superlattices) with the aim to harness size-dependent properties and tune collective phenomena arising from subunit interactions.