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EURAXESS

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions - Individual Fellowships (IF). Chemistry of Low-Dimensional Materials Research Group

The Human Resources Strategy for Researchers
3 Jul 2018

Hosting Information

Offer Deadline
EU Research Framework Programme
H2020 / Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
Country
Spain
City
28049 Madrid

Organisation/Institute

Organisation / Company
Fundación IMDEA Nanociencia
Is the Hosting related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?
No

Contact Information

Organisation / Company Type
Research Laboratory
Website
Street
Faraday 9 Ciudad Universitaria de Cantoblanco

Description

Our group was created in 2011 with support from both Spanish and European (ERC Starting Grant 2012) funds. It is currently formed by 6 PhD students, 3 postdocs, and 3 technicians. We have interests in three main research lines:

1) Unconventional chemistry of carbon nanotubes:

We have developed strategies for the synthesis of mechanically interlocked derivatives of SWNTs (MINTs), rotaxane-like species in which the SWNTs are encapsulated within organic macrocycles (Angew.Chem. 2014, Chem.Commun. 2015, Chem.Sci. 2017, Chem.Sci. 2018). MINTs are fundamentally different from supramolecular derivatives of SWNTs (Nanoscale 2016) and present advantages as polymer fillers (ACS Nano 2016) and catalysts (Nat.Commun. 2018).

2) Chemistry of 2D materials:

We develop methods for the liquid-phase exfoliation of bidimensional materials (2D Mater. 2016), and van der Waals heterostructures (Nat.Commun. 2017). We also fabricate functioning optoelectronic devices from the resulting colloidal suspensions (Chem.Commun. 2017, Nanoscale 2018)

We recently described a method for covalent functionalization of graphene with atomic selectivity (NanoLett. 2016, Chem.Commun. 2017).

3) Principles of supramolecular chemistry:

We invented a method for the determination of association constants between molecules and carbon nanotube samples as a tool to understand noncovalent interactions of SWNTs (Chem.Sci., 2015, Chem.Eur.J. 2017).

Finally, we are exploring the application of optical tweezers to synthetic systems, in order to address fundamental questions in supramolecular chemistry at the single-molecule level (Chem.Sci. 2017).

Project Description:

SWNTs are adorned with a particularly attractive set of physical properties. The combination of high electric and thermal conductivity, outstanding strength and stiffness, and a finite band-gap, make them suitable for a wealth of applications, from electronics to biology. The combination of molecules and SWNTs using covalent and supramolecular chemistry has been thoroughly investigated. We have introduced the mechanical bond as a new tool for the chemical modification of carbon nanotubes, synthesising rotaxane-like mechanically interlocked derivatives of SWNTs (MINTs) (see references above). So far, we have only explored the synthesis of MINTs in the bulk, using suspensions of SWNTs. Performing the MINT-forming reaction on-device will allow us to characterize the electric properties of the single SWNT field-effect transistors (FETs) before and after functionalization, and determine the influence of the mechanical link on the electronic properties of the SWNT unambiguously. Moreover, the single MINT FET device is an ideal set-up to study large-distance submolecular motion in MINTs.

Candidates are invited to submit a complete CV, a letter of motivation and the names of at least two referees directly to Prof. Emilio M. Pérez (emilio.perez@imdea.org), by 31 August 2018.