Project description
Soft 'stars' with arms in motion choreograph a self-assembly dance
Legos have fostered creativity in young minds for close to a century. One simple way they do this is by encouraging kids to conceptualise how to create curved surfaces by stacking rigid building blocks in a step-like fashion. If these same little blocks were malleable, the possible conformations would increase tremendously. The EU-funded Star Polymers project is harnessing the power of reconfigurability for self-assembly of synthetic supramolecules. The paradigm relies on star-shaped building blocks (star polymers) with 'arms' that can change formation. Their solvent-aversive portions towards the outer segments and solvent-friendly portions towards the core will generate spontaneous internal structuring that guides self-assembly into new classes of soft matter.
Objective
Biologic supramolecular assemblies, e.g. virus capsids and multiprotein complexes, show unprecedented complexity compared to man-made structures. A key feature of the building blocks facilitating the emergence of this structural complexity is their deformability. This enables them to reconfigure during assembly to find optimum orientations within the superstructure.
Here, I propose to exploit the concept of reconfigurability as design criterion for developing a new class of colloidal building blocks. Where currently available hard particles fail to form macroscopic structures due to lack of building block uniformity and undesired metastable states encountered during assembly, introducing flexibility will prevent these adverse characteristics.
The envisioned building blocks are based on polymer grafted cores, where the attached polymers arms comprise solvophilic and solvophobic blocks. The limited number of arms have significant conformational freedom, a feature absent in traditional hard particles. The solvophobic segments, located at the particle’s periphery, drive spontaneous polymer micro-phase separation into patchy domains which are then locked into place. These patches imprint directional interactions to guide self-assembly and are linked to the core via flexible solvophilic polymers, enabling patch fluctuations. The resulting patch adaptability prevents the system from getting trapped in non-equilibrium states and relaxes stringent requirements on geometric uniformity, promoting the formation of long-range ordered assemblies. Following simulation studies, these soft particles should have propensity to order into ‘open’ (quasi)crystalline lattices providing unique photonic, mechanical and porous characteristics.
Complementing my physical/polymer synthetic background with pioneering analytic tools, e.g. time-resolved scattering and in situ electron microscopy, this project will detail a new paradigm for self-assembly and the importance of patch flexibility.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology virology
- natural sciences physical sciences condensed matter physics soft matter physics
- natural sciences physical sciences optics microscopy electron microscopy
- natural sciences chemical sciences polymer sciences
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2018
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
5612 AE Eindhoven
Netherlands
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.