Josep Puigmart\u00ed-Luis, Departament de Ci\u00e8ncia dels Materials i Qu\u00edmica F\u00edsica, Institut de Qu\u00edmica Te\u00f2rica i Computacional (invited by C\u00e9sar Rodriguez-Emmenegger)<\/em><\/p>\n Self-assembly has long being used to control covalent and non-covalent interactions where molecular design has been the major driving force to achieve a desired outcome. Like in nature, a full control over self-assembly processes could lead to rationalized structure-property correlations, a long-time sought in chemistry, physics and materials science. However, the pathways followed and the mechanisms underlying the formation of supramolecular aggregates are still a major challenge for the scientific community. Accordingly, the elucidation of nucleation and growth mechanisms will be highly required to push supramolecular chemistry to the next level, where access to nature inspired functions will be accomplished. In this contribution, I will present how reaction-diffusion (RD) conditions established within microfluidic devices can be used to uncover pathway complexity as well as to trigger pathway selection. Specifically, I will show that microfluidic RD conditions provide an unprecedented kinetic control over self-assembly processes; for example, enabling the isolation of well-defined kinetically trapped states as well as unprecedented metastable intermediates. This research provides a new tool to study and understand supramolecular chemistry, and opens up new avenues for the engineering of advanced functional assemblies and systems.<\/p>\n Prof. Dr. Josep Puigmart\u00ed-Luis is a chemist who completed a master in Chemistry and Food Engineering at \u201cInstitut Qu\u00edmico de Serri\u00e0 (IQS)\u201d (2003) and did a PhD in materials science at Institut de Ci\u00e8ncia de Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB). His work in supramolecular and flow chemistry, has been awarded with \u201cPremi Antoni de Mart\u00ed i Franqu\u00e8s de Ci\u00e8ncies Qu\u00edmiques\u201d, award from the Institut d\u2019Estudis Catalans (2009), St. Jordi award from the Institut d\u2019Estudis Catalans and the Societat Catalana de Qu\u00edmica (2006) and an ETH fellowship in 2008.<\/p>\n In 2012, he was appointed a Ramon Y Cajal (RyC) researcher, but after two years as a RyC, he decided to move back to Switzerland where in 2015 was awarded an ERC starting grant to study and control self-assembly processes of metal-organic based crystalline materials. In 2019, he was appointed as an ICREA professor and since August 2020 his group is located at the University of Barcelona (UB).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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