Welcome to the SuNMaG Research Group Website!

SuNMaG is the research group of Francesco Stellacci, Paul M. Cook Career Development Professor of Materials Science and Engineering.

SuNMaG research efforts are dedicated to the discovery of new properties in nanoscale materials and to the development of new fabrication schemes for device based on such materials.
Nanoscale materials are new .non-bulk. materials composed of units that have at least one dimension in the nanometer size regime, each unit can be isolated and studied individually or it can be used as a building block for larger and more complex ensembles. Nanoparticles, nanorods, nanotubes and nanowires are the most commonly known nanoscale materials. They are mostly composed of an inorganic core and an organic ligand shell, thus they are very complex supramolecular assemblies. In SuNMaG we study the role of the ligand shell, i.e. we want to understand what properties can be affected or modulated by changing the chemical nature of molecular ligands.
We are presently using the molecular ligands as tools to modulate the (1) biological, (2) electronic and (3) optical properties of metal nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes. We also use the molecular ligands as anchors to direct the self-assembly of these particles on lithographically defined positions on a substrate.
The long term goal is to better understand the interfacial relationships between organic molecules and inorganic surfaces.

We are in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Our offices and labs are in Building 13 (Bush Building). For location of our offices and laboratories, please see the MIT campus map.

 

Latest in the NEWS

For NEWS archive please visit SuNMaG makes NEWS

EVENTS

Congratulations to our newest graduates - Dr. Alicia Jackson, Suelin Chen, and Sarah Thevenet!

 

Dr. Alicia Jackson (right), pictured here with her new husband, Daniel Kwon (left), is the third PhD to graduate from SuNMaG. She has been with the group since its inception in 2002, and spent the summer in Washington D.C. on an ACS fellowship. Suelin Chen is one of the two M.S. students to graduate from the SuNMaG group this year. She is currently pursuing a PhD at MGH. Sarah Thevenet (left) is the other M.S. student from SuNMaG. She and her husband Emmanuel (right) have returned to their native France to welcome their new child.
 


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