Research involves

Conceptualization and design of novel, nanostructured materials.

Research relevance

Wide-ranging application in areas including telecommunications, security, biomedicine and data storage.

Nano Building Blocks

As Canada Research Chair in Polymer Materials, Dr. Eugenia Kumacheva will pursue four areas of interest in expanding her ongoing research in the field of photonic crystals and initiating novel research in the fields of nanogels, nanoelectrochemistry and self-assembly. The defining feature of all her work is its "bottom-up" approach to the design and creation of nanostructured materials, where individual molecules are first synthesized, maintaining careful control of their size, shape and substituents. These individual molecules and their assemblies serve as building blocks for functional nanostructured materials.

The first component of Dr. Kumacheva's research is the production of polymer-based nanostructured materials with periodic structure, function and composition. The applications for these materials include photonic crystals, which can be employed for optical limiting and switching in optical communications networks, and polymer nanostructured films with periodically modulated fluorescent properties that can be used as encoded security labels.

The second component will be the development of hybrid nanostructured films with unique optical properties.

The third element will be the design of polymer nanogels that have application in biosensing, drug delivery and chemical separation.

Finally, Dr. Kumacheva will develop new strategies for assembling structural blocks of nanostructured materials, including the use of microscopic templates, the effect of surface patterning and a real-time study of the relationship between different factors governing particle assembly under confined conditions.