Gyroids and Clathrates by Colloidal Design – GOYA

In a context where new technologies require ever-increasing functional materials, the field of bottom-up design has recently seen the emergence of strategies to greatly extend the range of crystalline phases accessible to colloidal self-assembly, securing a viable path to novel materials with exciting properties. In this context, we will forge a self-assembly pathway to colloidal chiral gyroids and clathrates, motivated by their valuable properties in photonics and mechanics. This project aims at (i) the definition of the self-assembly strategies to the colloidal structures of interest with the help of computer simulations, (ii) the synthesis of the suitable building blocks in bulk, (iii) the experimental in-situ study of their DNA-guided assembly by a combination of advanced techniques.