(433a) Chiral Nanofiber Surfaces

Our improved understanding of molecular biology, microfabrication, and materials chemistry has stimulated cross-fertilization of two fields that have witnessed increasing overlap in the last few decades: biology and nanofabrication technologies. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) polymerization offers a unique approach to precisely engineer surface properties by transferring molecular precursors onto a surface where they spontaneously polymerize into well-defined high-molecular-weight polymer films. Anisotropic media, such as thin films of liquid crystals (LCs), can be used as templating phases during CVD polymerization. Our work has demonstrated organized arrays of polymeric nanofibers with precisely controlled diameters, lengths, and interfacial chemistry including chiral polymer nanohelices. The presentation will also discuss critical aspects of polymer synthesis and defect engineering and how they can be used to control nanofiber size, shape as well as emerging nanofiber properties.