Penn-COMPASS Partnership: IRG4/Solvay/CNRS

IRG-4 creates new forms of matter by assembling nanometer-sized crystals into large, ordered, complex assemblies (nanocrystal superlattices.

Murray (IRG-4) and Donnio (CNRS) have synthesized a library of molecules (polycatenars) that enable new kinds of nanocrystals and superlattices.

Broader Impact

Lego Optics Lab @GEMS Summer Camp

The Kagan (IRG-4) group created a Lego Optics lab for Penn’s Girls in Engineering, Math and Science (GEMS) summer camp for 6th-8th grade girls.

Middle school girls learn about the reflection, refraction, polarization, and diffraction of light hands-on. Lego is used to build mounts for light sources, optical elements, and detectors and the interaction of light with matter.

Examples of new nanocrystal superlattices made possible by polycatenar ligands.
Examples of new nanocrystal superlattices made possible by polycatenar ligands.