Directed assembly of magnetic and semiconducting nanoparticles with tunable and synergistic functionality.

The ability to fabricate new materials using nanomaterials as building blocks, and with meta functionalities, is one of the most intriguing possibilities in the area of materials design and synthesis. Semiconducting quantum dots (QDs) and magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) are co-dispersed in a liquid crystalline (LC) matrix and directed to form self-similar assemblies by leveraging the host's thermotropic phase transition. These co-assemblies, comprising 6 nm CdSe/ZnS QDs and 5-20 nm FeO MNPs, bridge nano- to micron length scales, and can be modulated in situ by applied magnetic fields <250 mT, resulting in an enhancement of QD photoluminescence (PL).