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Invited seminar with Ian Manners: Functional Nano- and Micron-Scale Materials via Seeded Self-Assembly Driven by Crystallization
Ian Manners, Department of Chemistry, University of Victoria, Canada
Hosted by University Professor Molly Shoichet via Zoom
Abstract
The ability to prepare materials in the 10 nm – 100 micron size regime with controlled shape, dimensions, tailored functionality, and structural hierarchy is still in its relative infancy and currently remains the virtually exclusive domain of biology. In this talk recent developments concerning a promising “seeded growth” route to well-defined 1D, 2D, and more complex hierarchical materials on these length-scales termed “living” crystallization-driven self-assembly (CDSA), will be described. Living CDSA can be regarded as a type of “living supramolecular polymerization” that is analogous to well-known “living” covalent (e.g. anion initiated) polymerizations of molecular monomers, but on a much longer length scale (typically, 20 nm – 5 microns). Living CDSA also shows analogies to biological “nucleation-elongation” processes such as amyloid fiber growth.
The building blocks or “monomers” used for living CDSA consist of a rapidly expanding range of crystallizable amphiphiles such as block copolymers, homopolymers with charged termini, or planar -stacking molecules with a wide variety of chemistries. The seeds used as “initiators” for living CDSA are usually prepared from preformed polydisperse 1D or 2D assemblies by sonication.
This talk will focus on the creation of functional architectures via living CDSA with emphasis on applications in catalysis, optoelectronics, nanomedicine, and surface modification. Successful scale-up will be discussed.
Recent References:
Science 2015, 347, 1329; Science 2016, 352, 697; Nature Chem., 2017, 9, 785; Nature Mater. 2017, 16, 481; Science 2018, 360, 897; Science 2019, 366, 1095; Chem. Sci., 2020, 11, 8394; J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2020, 142, 15038; J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2020, 142, 13469; Nature Chem. 2020, 12, 1150.
Bio
Ian Manners is Canadian and British. He was born in London, England and, after receiving his B.Sc. and Ph.D. in the UK he conducted postdoctoral work in Germany and then in the USA. He joined the University of Toronto, Canada as an Assistant Professor in 1990 and was promoted to Full Professor in 1995 and was made a Canada Research Chair in 2001. In 2006 he returned to the UK to take up a Chair at the University of Bristol in Inorganic, Macromolecular and Materials Chemistry supported by an EU Marie Curie Chair. In 2018 he was awarded a Canada 150 Research Chair at the University of Victoria, Canada on Vancouver Island where he has set up a new research group.
Ian’s research interests broadly focus on synthetic problems at molecular, macromolecular, and longer length scales. His current research projects include: catalytic main group chemistry and main group polymers, functional metallopolymers, crystallization-driven self-assembly of polymers, and nanoelectronics, catalysis, and nanomedicine with soft materials. He is the recipient of a wide range of national and international awards including a Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship (from the US), the Steacie Prize (from Canada), the RSC Award in Main Group Chemistry, and a Humboldt Research Award from Germany. Most recently he received the RSC de Gennes Prize (2017) and a 1000 Talents Award from China (2018) to support a Distinguished Visiting Professorship and satellite lab at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Ian’s work is documented in ca. 750 career publications (including over 30 in Science and Nature group journals and over 100 in J. Am. Chem. Soc.) and 4 books and has been presented in ca. 560 invited lectures worldwide and his work is widely cited (H-index = 113). He is an elected member of both the Canadian and the British National Academies of Science.
If desired, more info is available at: https://web.uvic.ca/~imanners/ian/about.html