(60a) Layered Biomimetic Nanocomposites: From Fundamental Advances to Scalable Nanotechnology

Finding materials with combinations of several extreme properties is one of the key requirements for the successful engineering of adaptive systems.  Many of such challenges are represented by the blank areas of Ashby plots, but others are less known.  Successful realization of such materials requires new choices for materials components and new approaches for materials “assembly”.  Layer-by-layer assembly (LBL) is materials manufacturing technique from nanomaterials that affords engineering of nanocomposite materials based on sequential adsorption of nanometer scale layers of polymers and inorganic particle, nanowires, nanotubes, sheets, etc.   In this presentation we demonstrate that LBL and related techniques can lead to the materials with seemingly “impossible” combinations of physical properties encompassing mechanical, electrical, optical, and biological properties.  We will make particular emphasis in this presentation on nanoparticles composites which consistently demonstrate exceptional performance and display the potential for scalability.  Hard-to-reach combinations of electrical and mechanical properties necessary for a number of technologies will be discussed.  Finding composites with high stiffness properties + high damping and as well as high stiffness + transparency will be demonstrated.  The pathway toward successful realization of two, three, and four different properties based on the structural designs and computer simulations will be shown.  The last part of the talk will describe our latest exploits in the area of composites from plasmonic nanoparticles including those with superchiral properties.