NanoscAM · Nanoscale active matter to power microstructures
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2020-12-01 → 2022-11-30
- EU contribution
- €128,954
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Nanoscale active matter to power microstructures
Living systems are prototypical examples of active matter, which convert energy available in their environment into mechanical motion. This enables them to accomplish tasks well beyond the capabilities of our man-made machines: cells consume energy at the molecular scale to organize collectively at much larger scale. Such active matter has inspired the development of similar artificial units, in the will to both better understand the physical principles underlying the dynamics of living systems and to develop novel materials with life-like properties. While colloidal science has enabled progress in the field, the realization of nanomachineries from nanomotors remains a challenge. It would yet offers opportunities for the building of hierarchical materials from nanoscale components, in a cell-like fashion. Such development has been hindered by experimental challenges. First, it requires robust nanoscale building blocks synthesized in large quantities. Second, the motion of nanoparticles cannot be resolved with standard optical microscopy method and is hardly addressed due to their small size, well beyond the diffraction limit. In this context, the aim of NanoscAM was to tackle these challenges, with the following objective: 1) adapt a versatile synthesis method to develop nanomotors able to self-propel in a fluid, 2) develop a nano-optical imaging technique to probe the collective motion of nanomotors, 3) create a novel type of micromachine driven by ensemble of nanomotors. Overall, the project aimed at addressing the physics of active matter at the nanoscale, where the influence of size reduction opened novel questions, while potentially enabling new routes for the bottom-up design of active materials. Over the course of the project, we have successfully developed synthesis routes of nanomotors, with sizes ranging from 10 to 100 nm. Following, we have implemented nano-optical and optical imaging techniques to further observe the self-propulsion of nanoparticles and their collective motion, based on the analysis of their scattered light on a wide range of spatiotemporal scales. In particular, the development of the project has integrated nanoscale active matter as a central thematic in the host lab, enabling the formation of a research group around important preliminary results.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Living systems are prototypical examples of active matter made of self-driven units. Active colloids that convert energy into work offer exciting routes to emulate Nature’s complexity and open new opportunities in materials science and engineering. They enabled the formation of synthetic flocks and collective behavior formerly limited to the biological realm but have not been used to build and control functional units, hindering progress towards self-regulated materials. The objective of this project is to develop a 3D nanofuel, a fluid made of active nanoparticles. The advantage of active nanoparticles is their possible integration in micrometric structures, a feature that is not currently available with microscale active particles. Such structures will offer improved versatility, as the overall behavior can be tuned by changing the characteristics of the nanofuel and have the potential to generate work at large scale. To this end, the research project proposes to i) synthesize a nanometric self-driven unit with tailored propulsion mechanism, ii) characterize the emergent dynamics of large assemblies of such units and iii) exploit those as an internal nanomachinery, a nanofuel, to power microstructures. This will enable the creation of a novel type of active emulsion, driven at the nanoscale. Through the design of a nanofuel, the proposed research will furthermore explore for the first time active matter in 3D and nano-propulsion. This project is built upon advanced nano-optical and correlation techniques, used to synthesize, characterize, and manipulate active nanoparticles individually and collectively, and involves complementary expertise of the host team in optofluidics and nanoparticle synthesis and of the researcher in active matter and nano-optics. This research will extend the field of active matter to the nanoscale and open new routes for the design of smart materials with tunable behavior and functionality.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS · ParisCoordinatorFrance
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union