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Directed Nanoscale Assembly of Polymers & Low-dimensional Materials for Novel Nanomaterials Design
Molecular self-assembly is an intriguing nanofabrication principle widespread in natural living system. Delicate interplay among biomolecules, including DNA, RNA, and protein enables sophisticated nanostructure construction and relevant interesting functionalities in the living system, including human. We are highly motivated to learn from nature how to manipulate the molecular level ultrafine nanostructure formation for highly functional, practically meaningful artificial nanofabrication technologies. I and my research group have been working on the directed nanoscale assembly of block copolymers (BCPs) and various functional low-dimensional materials, such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs), graphene and MXene over the past two decades.
BCP self-assembly can generate dense, periodic nanopatterns with sub-10-nm scale pattern precision, particularly interested in the semiconductor nanolithography application. I and my research group have contributed to this research field from the early days and established many interesting technologies, such as the birth of directed self-assembly (DSA) principle by nanoscale epitaxy (1,2), novel light induced DSA principles, and DSA for nonplanar geometry by exploiting mechanically compliant graphene substrates. Recently, we reported an interesting IoT security application of BCP self-assembly by applying the defective fingerprint like self-assembled nanopatterns to physically unclonable function (PUF) label (3).
Functional low-dimensional materials, including CNTs, graphene, 2D TMDs and MXene, have been the star materials in the era of nanotechnology. Despite superior inborn characteristics of those nanoscale building blocks, their potential value for real-world application can be greatly boosted up by judicious nanoscale assembly (4). In this regard, our discovery of graphene oxide liquid crystal (GOLC) in the year of 2009 triggered a big advance in the development of functional nanomaterials based on the solution processing of graphene based structures (5,6). Interestingly, GOLC allows us a valuable opportunity for the highly ordered molecular scale assembly, such as liquid crystalline 1D graphene fibers, highly ordered 2D graphene membrane/film, and 3D nanoporous graphene assembly. Recently, we succeeded in the development of human muscle like strong artificial muscle with the graphene based composite structures that enables versatile biomimetic movements by laser driven remote control (7).
References
1. S. O. Kim, H. H. Solak, M. P. Stoykovich, N. J. Ferrier, J. J. de Pablo & P. F. Nealey* Nature 424, 411, 2003.
2. S.-J. Jeong, J. Y. Kim, B. H. Kim, H. S. Moon & S. O. Kim* Materials Today 16, 468, 2013.
3. J. H. Kim, S. W Jeon, J. H. In, S. H Nam, H. M. Jin, K. H. Han, G. G. Yang, H. J. Choi, K. M. Kim, J. H. Shin, S. W. Son, S. J. Kwon*, B. H. Kim* & S. O. Kim* Nature Electronics 5, 433, 2022.
4. U. N. Maiti, W. J. Lee, J. M. Lee, Y. T. Oh, J. Y. Kim, J. E. Kim, J. W. Shim, T. H. Han & S. O. Kim* Advanced Materials 26, 40, 2014.
5. J. E. Kim, T. H. Han, S. H. Lee, J. Y. Kim, C. W. Ahn, J. M. Yun & S. O. Kim* Angewandte Chemie International Edition 50, 3043, 2011.
6. S. P. Sasikala, J. Lim, I. H. Kim, H. J. Jung, T. Y. Yun, T. H. Han, & S. O. Kim* Chemical Society Reviews 47, 6013, 2018.
7. I. H. Kim, S. Choi, J. E. Lee, J. Y. Jung, J. W. Yeo, J. T. Kim, S. H. Ryu, S. K. Ahn, J. H. Kang, P. Poulin & S. O. Kim* Nature Nanotechnology 17, 1198, 2022.