
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.

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.
Please enter to see more details >>
Click to play
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
-
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).
-
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.
-
-
-
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.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-