Professors Linda Hirst and Sayantani Ghosh are combining liquid crystals with nanoparticles such as gold and quantum dots to come up with a new platform that could have applications in fields such as optics and medicine.
And the two new grants the School of Natural Sciences researchers have earned could help take their creations out of this world — literally.
A National Science Foundation grant of $410,000 will help Hirst and Ghosh study the fundamental physics behind the capsules that form when the two materials are combined.
The tiny capsules — actually thin, spherical shells — cannot be seen with the naked eye. They form after heated liquid crystals infused with the nanoparticles begin to cool.
The capsules can contain solutions and be broken open with light that heats them. What researchers choose to put inside the capsules can vary, and could include medicine.
