Please contact the symposium organizers with questions.

The symposium will cover a broad range of topics that are germane to building advanced materials via particle-based crystallization (PBC) and molecule self-assembly (MSA) both experimental and theoretical. Advanced materials such as hierarchical materials have attracted increasing attention due to their unique physical and chemical properties. These materials have been applied in important technological fields such as energy, catalysis and optics. PBS and MSA are important pathways to synthesize advanced materials of complex. Unlike monomer-by-monomer addition or Ostwald ripening, PBC occurs via particle-by-particle addition to form larger crystals. Examples include colloids and nanoparticles such as Au and TiO₂. Different with the PBC, MSA has been used to build smaller sized materials such as molecular clusters. For instance, advanced luminescent materials have been prepared by aggregation-induced emission (AIE) of intrinsically non-emissive molecules. One of the challenges facing this fast-growing field is to develop a fundamental understanding of the interactions between particles or molecules in a growth medium and the resulting response dynamics, which we will be addressed in this symposium. Contributions will include, but are not limited to: 1) Advances in synthesis of advanced materials via PBC and MSA; 2) Investigations into growth mechanisms; 3) Understanding the driving forces for particle and molecular aggregation; 4) Materials with aggregation-induced emission and their applications. The aim of this symposium is to provide a platform for interdisciplinary researchers from physics, chemistry, geology, biology, engineering and material science to share their approaches to understand and control molecular and particle-based mechanisms of advanced material formation in order to design novel functionalized materials.

Topics will include:

• Building hierarchical materials (e.g., 1D wires, 2D plates, and 3D networks) by oriented attachment of nanocrystals
• Self-assembly of hierarchical materials, such as nanoparticle superlattices, nano-flowers and branched nanocrystals
• Control of morphology and size during synthesis of hierarchical materials
• Mechanistic studies of hierarchical material formation via particle-based crystallization and self-assembly
• Colloidal interactions and crystallization
• In-situ observation and characterizations of particle-based crystallization and self-assembly
• Simulation and computation of nanoparticle interactions
• Fluorescent and phosphorescent AIE-based polymers, oligomers and molecules
• Design principles and operational mechanisms of the AIE based molecules
• Biocompatible AIE probes for sensing, imaging and other biomedical applications
• Applications of these advanced materials in areas of energy, environment, optics, etc.

Invited Speakers:

• Lluís Blancafort (Universitat de Girona, Spain)
• Thomas Mueller (Bruker Nano Surfaces, USA)
• Yun Yan (Peking University, China)
• Michael Whittaker (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA)
• Olof Ramstrom (University of Massachusetts Lowell, USA)
• Min Hui Li (Chimie ParisTech, France)
• Vladimir Korolkov (Oxford Instruments-Asylum Research, USA)
• Lili Du (The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)
• Oliver Diwald (University of Salzburg, Austria)
• Dan Ding (Nankai University, China)
• Zhen Li (Wuhan University, China)
• Deqing Zhang (Chinese Academy of Sciences, China)
• Haimei Zheng (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA)
• Hongyou Fan (Sandia National Laboratories, USA)
• Qian Chen (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA)
• Rongchao Jin (Carnegie Mellon University, USA)
• Cherie Kagan (University of Pennsylvania, USA)
• Younan Xia (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA)
• Chad Mirkin (Northwestern University, USA)
• Jim De Yoreo (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, USA)
• Utkur Mirsaidov (National University of Singapore, Singapore)
• Nicholas Kotov (University of Michigan, USA)
• Yan Li (Peking University, China)
• Paul R. McGonigal (Durham University, United Kingdom)
• R. Lee Penn (University of Minnesota, USA)
• Andrew Pucci (University of Pisa, Italy)
• Anjun Qin (South China University of Technology, China)
• Kevin Rosso (Pacific Northwest National Lab, USA)
• Litao Sun (Southeast University, China)
• Wenjin Tian (Jilin University, China)

Symposium Organizers