Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Researchers from the Wiesner Group were recently published in Science for their new method for self-assembling metals into complex nanostructures. Applications include making more efficient and cheaper catalysts for fuel cells and industrial processes and creating microstructured surfaces to make new types of conductors that would carry more information across microchips than conventional wires do. The method involves coating metal nanoparticles -- about 2 nanometers (nm) in diameter -- with an organic material known as a ligand that allows the particles to be dissolved in a liquid, then mixed with a block co-polymer (a material made up of two different chemicals whose molecules link together to solidify in a predictable pattern). When the polymer and ligand are removed, the metal particles fuse into a solid metal structure.

Click here to see the video of Prof. Wiesner explaining the research in his own words.


Read more about the Wiesner Group's work on this project at the Cornell Chronicle, National Science Foundation, and the Chemical & Engineering News.