Laboratory of organic nanomaterials

NanoOrgMat Group led by Prof. Wiktor Lewandowski The NanoOrgMat group conducts interdisciplinary research at the intersection of organic chemistry and nanomaterials, with a special focus on applications in photonics and biomedicine. The team specializes in the design and synthesis of organic compounds, which are used both for the surface modification of metallic and semiconductor nanoparticles (to enhance their durability, stability, and biocompatibility) and for the creation of advanced liquid crystalline materials with unique physicochemical properties. A key research area of the group is the synthesis of nanoparticles with diverse morphologies — ranging from precisely controlled nanosized spheres with high monodispersity, through nanorods, nanotriangles, and bipyramids, to nanostars and highly specialized chiral-shaped nanoparticles. NanoOrgMat not only develops new strategies for the synthesis of such structures but also actively explores their application in biomedical technologies, such as lateral flow assays (LFA) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA), opening new possibilities for disease diagnostics and biomarker detection. The group is also intensively developing the synthesis of specially designed organic compounds that enable the formation of liquid crystalline phases with unprecedented properties, such as strong chiroptical activity and ferroelectric behavior. Through precise chemical modifications, it is possible to control parameters like polarity, dipole moment, and the ability to generate ordered structures on the nano- and microscale. Thanks to the controlled surface modification of the synthesized nanoparticles, these liquid crystalline compounds serve as excellent matrices guiding the self-assembly of nanoparticles, enabling the formation of chiral plasmonic materials with tunable optical properties. By precisely tuning the interactions between the nanoparticles and the liquid crystalline phase, the team has developed materials that exhibit a shift of chiroptical properties into the UV-Vis-NIR range, with structures and properties that can be dynamically modified in response to temperature changes or UV light exposure. Such materials open new avenues in enantioselective recognition, chiral catalysis, high-speed data transfer, and advanced 3D imaging technologies. A particularly notable innovation is the development of thin-film chiral materials based on liquid crystals, enabling precise microscale image encoding using laser photothermal writing. The NanoOrgMat group also specializes in the analysis of chiroptical properties of materials. We offer advanced measurements including circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, Mueller matrix polarimetry analysis, and, soon, circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) measurements.