Colloidal Chemical Nanomotors

2018

Ph.D. Thesis

pf

Synthetic sophisticated nanostructures represent a fundamental building block for the development of nanotechnology. The fabrication of nanoparticles complex in structure and material composition is key to build nanomachines that can operate as man-made nanoscale motors, which autonomously convert external energy into motion. To achieve this, asymmetric nanoparticles were fabricated combining a physical vapor deposition technique known as NanoGLAD and wet chemical synthesis. This thesis primarily concerns three complex colloidal systems that have been developed: i)Hollow nanocup inclusion complexes that have a single Au nanoparticle in their pocket. The Au particle can be released with an external trigger. ii)The smallest self-propelling nanocolloids that have been made to date, which give rise to a local concentration gradient that causes enhanced diffusion of the particles. iii)Enzyme-powered pumps that have been assembled using bacteriophages as biological nanoscaffolds. This construct also can be used for enzyme recovery after heterogeneous catalysis.

@phdthesis{3736997973,
  title = {Colloidal Chemical Nanomotors},
  author = {Alarcon-Correa, Mariana},
  booktitle = {Colloidal Chemical Nanomotors},
  publisher = {Cuvillier Verlag},
  school = {Univ. of Stuttgart},
  month = jun,
  year = {2018},
  doi = {},
  month_numeric = {6}
}