Nanomaterials are everywhere these days. Whether the goal is to use the tiny structures to solve problems such as gas separation and drug delivery or to control their spread in the environment, the need to understand nanoparticles is growing. Carina Crucho and colleagues at the Nova School of Science and Technology built this macroscale model to better understand the geometric interactions among polymers, peptides, proteins, and fluorescent dyes bound to nanoparticles. “By enlarging nanoscale dimensions to a human scale, the model allows us to physically explore how molecules compete for limited space on a nanoparticle surface,” she says. Long term, the work should aid in the design of nanomedicines, sensors, and imaging agents. “This approach makes an invisible nanoscale problem tangible,” Crucho says.
Submitted by Carina Crucho
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