“Self-assembly is the autonomous organization of components into patterns or structures without human intervention” G.M. Whitesides and B. Grzybowski, Science, 2002, 295, 2418
Today's advances in technology address the global need for new materials in different areas such as medicine, energy production and storage, separations, catalysis, etc. In this regard, self-assembly has attracted great attention to develop various functional materials with controlled dimensionality and tailored properties due to its simplicity, cost-effectiveness, and scalability.
Of particular interest to chemists is the bottom up approach, in which weak inter and intra molecular interactions between small building blocks dispersed in a homogeneous phase promotes the formation of molecular assemblies upon casting, printing, or deposition that might possess properties suitable for different application such as photoelectronic devices or biomedical materials.
The current concentration of Eftaiha lab is to understand the self-assembly of various functional materials to provide a comprehensive assessment of molecular organization which is crucial for optimizing a diverse range of important technological applications particularly plastic solar cells, pulmonary lung surfactant-based therapies and extended release dosage forms.