Two groups in the Materials Science and Engineering Department have collaborated on a project to assemble photo-responsive molecules, to produce particles that react to light at certain frequencies.

The project has been ongoing for about a year, with new gains being made constantly. The two groups are being led by Jeffrey Moore and Jennifer Lewis, both professors in materials science and engineering.

Ali Mohraz, a research scientist in the Department of materials science and Engineering, has worked with the project since the start.

“These particles can have a wide range of scientific and technological applications in the future, ranging from smart sensors to dynamic probes for the study of fundamental problems in soft-matter physics,” Mohraz said in an e-mail interview.

The molecules’ properties can be changed, which allows the researchers to make certain particles attracted to other particles when they could not be attracted to each other before. The particles can be put together to make different formations or shapes, each responding to light in a different way.

Moore has been at the forefront of the project and has watched it develop from its infancy.

“It is not just a chemistry project, it is at the interface of chemistry and materials science,” Moore said.

Kyle Plunkett, graduate student and a former student of Moore’s, first thought of the idea for the project.

“Students can have great ideas, and they need their freedom to pursue their own ideas,” Moore said.

Plunkett and Mohraz have both worked extensively on the project.

“Kyle and I were introduced through our advisors to collaborate on a totally different problem,” Mohraz said. “I brought in a new set of skills to the table, and when he introduced the molecule to me we both realized there was a lot of potential in combining our skills – his skills in the synthesis of organic functional macromolecules and my skills in colloid science – to do some really cool science.”

Mohraz added that the project has taken off, with the results of their work having been published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The project is now being worked on by “about five graduate students and postdocs between the two groups,” Mohraz said.

Associate Professor of Physics, Karin A. Dahmen, said the project’s applications could be very wide-ranging and helpful.

“It is very exciting,” she said.

Dahmen added that it could also be important for industrial applications and many other uses.

“It could be good down the road for interesting applications,” said Dahmen. “It is very wide open.”