Project leader: U. Steiner, C. Weder

Team: F. Scheffold, A. Studart

Engineered nanoparticles are increasingly used in commercial materials systems, consumer products, and medical applications. Many applications, however, have so far been stifled by the fact that desirable combinations of specific nano-effects (e.g. magnetic properties) and certain optical characteristics (e.g. material color) are difficult to access. For example, ferro- and superparamagnetic particles are useful for magneto-responsive materials and systems, but their black color is a significant impediment for many applications, including dental adhesives that allow for ma­gneti­cally induced debonding on demand. Similarly, security features for the protection of banknotes and other valuable items against counterfeiting would benefit from the possibility to bestow magnetic or other metallic nano-particles with atypical colors. Interestingly, “disguising” functional nanoparticles by giving them a customized optical appe­ar­ance is an unsolved problem, which the present project seeks to address.