Lab News

May 21, 2013. Dr. Nie received ACS Petroleum Research Fund (ACS PRF) Doctoral New Investigator Award for a proposal entitled "Phase Behavior of Giant Spherical Amphiphilic Block Copolymers in Solutions". Congratulations!!!

May 21, 2013. Jie has accpeted a Tenure-track Assistant Professor Position at the University of Connecticut with a starting date of January, 2014. Congratulations to Jie!!!

May 03, 2013. Our paper on "Self-assembly of amphiphilic plasmonic micelle-like nanoparticles in selective solvents" is accepted to publish in JACS! Congratulations to Jie, Yijing and Taarika!

Mar. 31, 2013. Our collaborative JACS on "Multiple Shape Transformations of Composite Hydrogel Sheets" is Highlighted in C&EN News: Hydrogels Takes Multiple Shapes!

Mar. 06, 2013. Our collaborative work on "Multiple Shape Transformations of Composite Hydrogel Sheets" is accepted to publish in JACS! Congratulations!!

Mar. 03, 2013. Our collaborative work on "A simple route to improve inorganic nanoparticles loading efficiency in block copolymer micelles" is accepted to publish in Macromolecules!

Feb. 25, 2013. Our collaborative work on "Ordering of gold nanorods in confined space by directed assembly" is accepted to publish in Macromolecules! Congratulations to Weikun, Peng, Jie and Taarika!!

Feb. 12, 2013. Congratulations to Taylor on receiving the prestigious LSAMP Bridge to the Doctorate Fellowship Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Great job, Taylor!

Jan. 15, 2013. Chenglin joined the group as a visiting graduate student! Welcome!

Jan. 01, 2013. Our invited review article on "Asymmetric polymer-inorganic hybrid nanoparticles: synthesis and applications" is accepted to publish in Nanoscale! Congratulations to all coauthors!

Dec. 28, 2012. Our collaborative work on "Three-dimensional Shape Transformations of Hydrogel Sheets Induced by Small-Scale Modulation of Internal Stresses" is accepted to publish in Nature Communications! Congratulations!

Dec. 21, 2012. Our paper on "Hydrodynamic-driven self-assembly of giant vesicles of metal nanoparticles for remotely triggered release" is accepted to publish in Angew. Chem.! Congratulations to Jie, Zengjiang and Taarika!

Dec. 11, 2012. Our paper on "Ultrasound assisted interfacial synthesis of gold nanocones" is accepted to publish in Chem. Comm.! Congratulations to Peng and Jie!

Dec. 1, 2012. Taylor, Shaoyi, and Matt joined the group as graduate students! Lei joined the group as a visiting graduate student! Welcome!!!

Nov 28, 2012. Dr. Nie was awarded NSF CAREER Award! Congratulations!!!

Nov 2, 2012. Our paper on "Near-infrared light-responsive vesicles of Au nanoflowers" is accepted to publish in Chem. Comm.! Congratulations to Jie, Peng and Taarika!

August 12, 2012. Our paper on "Engineering of polarized tubular structures in a microfluidic device to study calcium phosphate stone formation" is accepted to publish in Lab Chip! Congratulations to Zengjiang!

July 2, 2012. Our paper on "Self-assembly of inorganic nanoparticle vesicles and tubules driven by tethered linear block copolymers" is accepted to publish in JACS! Congratulations to Jie, Yijing, Taarika, and Zengjiang!

May 08, 2012. Our Chem. Comm.paper on "Facile synthesis of functional Au nanopatchies and nanocups"has been selected as Front Cover Page and Hot Article! Great job!

May 04, 2012. Our paper on "Facile synthesis of functional Au nanopatchies and nanocups" is accepted to publish in Chem. Comm.! Congratulations to Jie, Peng, and coauthors!

May 01, 2012. Congratulations to Nicole on receiving the KAIST nanotechnology summer research Fellowship! Have an outstanding summer there!!!

March 30, 2012. Congratulations to Maria on receiving the prestigious NSF's Graduate Research Fellowship (GRFP)! Terrific job!!!

March 7, 2012. Our recent JACS paper was listed as one of the Top 20 most downloaded articles for Feb 2012.

Feb 8, 2012. Our paper on "A general approach to synthesize asymmetric hybrid nanoparticles by interfacial reactions" is accepted to publish in JACS! Congratulations to Jie and coauthors!

Feb 1, 2012. Our paper on "Wet-chemical synthesis of amphiphilic rodlike silica particles and their molecular-mimetic assembly in selective solvents" is accepted to publish in Angew. Chem.! Congratulations to Jie and coauthors!

Dec 1, 2011. Dr. Nie received Research and Scholarship Award for Summer 2012 from College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences, UMD!

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2012group0

Group picture, 2012

Welcome to Materials and Microfluidics Research Group!

Our mission is to develop new strategies/concepts for  the synthesis and design of new nano- and micro-structured materials with advanced applications. We conduct fundamental and applied research at the intersection of  science, engineering, biology, and medicine.

areas
We aim at: (a) the synthesis, fabrication, and self-assembly of functional nanostructures for the development of renewable energy, for chemical sensing, and so on; (b) the study of biomineralization, and bioinspired/biomimetic nanocomposite materials with structural hierarchy; (c) the exploration of microfluidics and nanofluidics for chemical synthesis, biological study, and medical diagnostics.

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Three-dimensional reconstruction of nanoparticle vesicles composed of a single layer of highly ordered gold nanoparticles in the membrane using tomographic TEM (diameter of gold nanoparticles: 15 nm)..

Near-infrared (NIR) light triggered burst release of encapsulated molecules from giant vesicles composed of a single layer of gold nanorods in the membrane (black: vesicles; white: NIR light spot; size of giant vesicles: ~2,000 nm)

Selected Publications

  1. Z. L. Wu, M. Moshe, J. Greener, H. Therien-Aubin, Z.H. Nie*, E. Sharon*, E. Kumacheva*, Three-dimensional Shape Transformations of Hydrogel Sheets Induced by Small-Scale Modulation of Internal Stresses, Nature Communications, 2013, In press (DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2549).
  2. J. He, Z. J. Wei, L. Wang, Z. Tomova, T. Babu#, C. Y. Wang, X. J. Han, J.T. Fourkas, Z.H. Nie*, Hydrodynamically driven self-assembly of giant vesicles of metal nanoparticles for remotely triggered release, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2013, 52, 2463-2468.
  3. J. He, Y.J. Liu, T. Babu, Z.J. Wei, Z.H. Nie*, Self-assembly of inorganic nanoparticle vesicles and tubules driven by tethered linear block copolymers, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012, 134, 11342−11345.
  4. J. He, M. T. Perez, Y.J. Liu, P. Zhang, J.L. Gong*, Z.H. Nie*, A general approach to synthesize asymmetric hybrid nanoparticles by interfacial reactions, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012, 134, 3639−3642.
  5. J. He, B.Y. Yu, M. J. Hourwitz#, Y.J. Liu, M. T. Perez, J.  Yang, Z.H. Nie*,Wet-chemical synthesis of amphiphilic rodlike silica particles and their molecular-mimetic assembly in selective solvents, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2012, 51, 3628 –3633.
  6. K. Liu, Z.H. Nie, N.N. Zhao, et al. Step-growth polymerization of inorganic nanoparticles, Science 2010, 329, 197-200.
  7. Z.H. Nie, A. Petukhova, E. Kumacheva, Properties and emerging applications of self-assembled structures made from inorganic nanoparticles, Nat. Nanotech. 2010, 5, 15-25.
  8. Z.H. Nie, E. Kumacheva,Patterning surfaces with functional polymers, Nat. Mater. 2008, 7, 277-290.
  10. Z.H. Nie, J.I. Park, et al. Inside-out” microfluidic approach to producing monodisperse emulsion droplets stabilized by solid particles, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 16508–16509.
  11. Z.H. Nie, D. Fava, et al. Self-assembly of metal-polymer analogues of amphiphilic triblock copolymers, Nat. Mater. 2007, 6, 609-614.




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