Breakthrough in Molecular Self-Assembly Paves the Way for Revolutionary Materials in Electronics and Healthcare

The discovery, published in ACS Applied Nano Materials, opens new avenues for creating materials with customizable properties.

A recent breakthrough in understanding how tiny molecular units self-assemble into complex structures is set to revolutionize industries such as electronics and healthcare by paving the way for the creation of advanced nanomaterials.

Researchers from the Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS), Bengaluru, and Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), both autonomous institutes under the Department of Science and Technology (DST), have made significant strides in controlling supramolecular self-assembly. This process involves the spontaneous organization of small molecules into larger, well-defined structures without external guidance—a key mechanism for developing innovative organic materials for use in nanodevices.

The team, led by Dr. Goutam Ghosh, Mr. V.M.T. Naidu Moram, and Dr. Padmanabhan Viswanath from CeNS, along with Mr. Tarak Nath Das and Prof. Tapas Kumar Maji from JNCASR, investigated the self-assembly behavior of chiral amphiphilic naphthalene diimide derivatives (NDI-L and NDI-D). They conducted experiments using two distinct assembly methods: Solution Phase Assembly and Air-Water Interface Assembly.

In Solution Phase Assembly, the molecules were dissolved in a liquid solution, leading to the formation of spherical nanoparticles with unique optical properties, including strong mirror-imaged circular dichroism (CD) signals. These properties are particularly valuable for materials designed to interact with light in precise ways, making them highly useful in photonics and sensing applications.

Meanwhile, in the Air-Water Interface Assembly, the molecules organized into flat, two-dimensional layers at the boundary between air and water. Unlike the solution-assembled nanoparticles, these layers exhibited irregular edges and did not display the same optical properties, highlighting the critical role that the assembly environment plays in determining molecular structure and behavior.

The discovery, published in ACS Applied Nano Materials, opens new avenues for creating materials with customizable properties. In the biomedical field, such materials could lead to the development of more targeted drug delivery systems, enhancing the precision of treatment. In electronics, these findings could contribute to the creation of faster, more efficient devices that are key to future innovations in technology.

The study emphasizes the potential of using different self-assembly techniques to guide the formation of nanostructures, thus enabling scientists to engineer materials with specific functionalities. This breakthrough not only advances the field of material science but also lays the foundation for future developments across a range of industries.