PROGRAM-NANO · Programmed Nanostructuration of Organic Materials

“Program-Nano” aims at establishing unconventional and versatile strategies towards organic architectures whose size, composition, internal structure, and function can be rationally predesigned and controlled. In a bio-inspired manner, we will “program” functional molecules with the required information to self-assemble into unique, well-defined nanofibers or nanotubes. We want to focus on two main ambitious objectives for the application of such organic nanostructured materials.1) The design and preparation of optoelectronic devices, such as plastic solar cells, where nanostructured fibers are integrated within the active layers. The major goal is to determine the influence of the molecular organization and the morphology at the nanoscale on the performance of the device, and to try in this way to set new records in device efficiency.2) The fabrication of plastic nanoporous materials for the separation, storage or catalytic transformation of (bio)molecules in which the size, the shape ratio, and the internal functionalization of the nanopores can be custom-tailored.