General Program IM2018

ABSTRACT
MESOPOROUS MATERIALS: A PLATFORM TOWARDS
PROGRAMMABLE MATTER
The combination of nanomaterials synthesis with self-assembly processes led
to a significant advance in the production of hybrid inorganic-organic materials
with hierarchical structures and localized functions. Our ability to produce highly
precise complex architectures with well-defined localized functions opens the path
to create intelligent matter that can change their physical or chemical properties
in response to the environment. Programmable nanosystems can be envisaged,
in which confinement effects, responsivity, or collaborative functionality can be
imparted into the structure through the control of positional chemistry of different
chemical building blocks.
In this presentation, we will illustrate the richness of this emergent field by focusing
in mesoporous materials (MM). Mesoporous architectures can be produced
through the self-assembly of inorganic nanobuilding blocks in the presence of
supramolecular templates. MM can then be decorated by small molecular species,
biomolecules, polymers or nanospecies. An amazing variety of chemical behaviors
can be programmed into these structures, from tunable catalysis to light guiding
or responsiveness to external stimuli. In addition to synthetic and characterization
tools, theoretical models and simulations are essential to understand the
complexity of the synthesis paths and the final properties. This in-depth knowledge
is key to evolve from materials synthesis to ultimate nanosystems design. We
will present examples of tunable catalysts, enzyme cascade hosts, intelligent
bioscaffolds, remotely activated nanoparticles, chemical-to-optical transducers
or perm-selective membranes. A potentially infinite variety of nanosystems with
externally controllable behavior is at our disposal, opening the path to design
intelligent matter.
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