| Nanostructures have received enormous attention as building blocks towards the creation of advanced functional materials due to their promising applications in chemical sensors, biosensors and catalysis. However, many of the applications are often hampered by the lack of ability to precisely control the assembly of nanoparticles with well-defined sizes, shapes, and interparticle spatial properties. In this work, the detailed interparticle interactions and reactivities have been investigated for the assembly of nanoparticles mediated by a wide range of well-defined molecules and biomolecules such as small multidentate thioethers, large and rigid methylthio arylethynes, fluorescent cyanine dyes, multifunctional fullerenes, biologically-relevant amino acids, proteins and DNAs. Each of these mediators exploits the molecularly-tunable properties in terms of structural rigidity, multifunctional binding sites, complementary binding, pi-conjugation, 2D/3D size and shape tenability, etc. The correlation between the interparticle nanostructures in the molecularly-mediated assembly and the optical/spectroscopic properties has been examined. The investigation of the structures and properties of amino acids, proteins and DNAs in the nanoparticle assembly has allowed us to gain important insights into the detailed biomolecular interactions and reactivities. The understanding of how the detailed interparticle interactions and reactivities can be translated to fine-tunable optical, electrical and magnetic properties can profoundly impact the design and fabrication of advanced functional nanomaterials. The results have important implications to exploring their potential applications in a wide range of nanotechnology frontiers, including sensors, biosensors, catalysis, controlled drug delivery, and medical diagnostics. |
