Researchers use flexible molecular links to build new nanoparticle structures

Researchers including a team at MIT have demonstrated a way to assemble nanoparticles into previously unseen crystal structures using flexible connector molecules. Their study, published in Nature Materials, shows that connector flexibility and electric charges can control how the particles form networks. The connectors have positively or negatively charged tips that bend to join opposite charges. Changing particle sizes and connector chain lengths lets researchers control how many bonds each particle forms, without predetermining connection points or particle shapes. The experiments establish a new way to control material structure. Applications in photonics, catalysis and medicine remain prospective.