Programming Colloidal Self-Assembly for Multifunctional Advanced Materials

About the Project

A funded PhD studentship is available for home students in the School of Chemistry at the University of Birmingham on a project themed on the design and self-assembly of multifunctional advanced materials, using a variety of computational methods and data-driven approaches. The PhD studentship must start by the beginning of the 2026-27 academic year, but can start sooner.

Primary Supervisor:

Dr Dwaipayan Chakrabarti, School of Chemistry, University of Birmingham

Project description:

Colloidal crystals, especially porous or open 3D colloidal crystals, provide an exciting platform for designing advanced materials, including metamaterials, with tailor-made photonic, phononic and/or mechanical properties. An added advantage is that these designer advanced materials can be fabricated at scale via self-assembly of colloidal particles. The task of encoding multifunctionality demands an efficient exploration of rich parameter space for an optimal design of structure and the success of programmed self-assembly of colloidal particles into a target crystal structure requires both thermodynamic and kinetic considerations. This PhD project will employ computational methods and data-driven approaches underpinned by machine learning to address these design challenges.

Dr Chakrabarti leads a state-of-the-art research programme at the intersection of soft matter and advanced materials. For the Chakrabarti group’s research, please visit here. The Chakrabarti group has active collaborations with several groups from within and beyond the UK. Dr Chakrabarti is also a visiting academic at the International Institute for Sustainability with Knotted Chiral Meta Matter (WPI-SKCM2) at Hiroshima University.

Recent representative publications by the Chakrabarti group on programming colloidal self-assembly for open crystals and empty liquids are as follows:

1. A. Neophytou, F. W. Starr, D. Chakrabarti and F. Sciortino, Hierarchy of Topological Transitions in a Network Liquid, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 121, e2406890121 (2024).
2. W. Flavell, A. Neophytou, A. Demetriadou, T. Albrecht and D. Chakrabarti, Programmed Self-Assembly of Single Colloidal Gyroids for Chiral Photonic Crystals. Adv. Mater. 35, 2211197 (2023).
3. A. Neophytou, D. Chakrabarti and F. Sciortino, Topological Nature of the Liquid-Liquid Phase Transition in Tetrahedral Liquids, Nat. Phys. 18, 1248 (2022).
4. A. Neophytou, D. Chakrabarti and F. Sciortino, Facile Self-Assembly of Colloidal Diamond from Tetrahedral Patchy Particles via Ring Selection**,**Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 118, e2109776118 (2021).
5. A. Neophytou, V. N. Manoharan and D. Chakrabarti, Self-Assembly of Patchy Colloidal Rods into Photonic Crystals Robust to Stacking Faults, ACS Nano 15, 2668 (2021).
6. A. B. Rao, J. Shaw, A. Neophytou, D. Morphew, F. Sciortino, R. L. Johnston and D. Chakrabarti, Leveraging Hierarchical Self-Assembly Pathways for Realizing Colloidal Photonic Crystals, ACS Nano 14, 5348 (2020).
7. D. Morphew, J. Shaw, C. Avins and D. Chakrabarti, Programming Hierarchical Self-Assembly of Patchy Particles into Colloidal Crystals viaColloidal Molecules**,** ACS Nano 12, 2355 (2018).

Person specification:

Candidates suitable for the project should expect to have (or hold) a 2:1 honours degree (or equivalent) in Chemistry / Physics / Materials Science / Chemical Engineering or in a related discipline, and an academic background suitable for undertaking computational and theoretical research.

The University of Birmingham is strongly committed to promoting equality, diversity and inclusion. The School of Chemistry holds an Athena SWAN Bronze Award in recognition of its work in promoting women’s careers in STEM subjects in higher education and is keen to welcome applicants from all backgrounds.

How to apply:

For further details on the project and informal enquiry, please contact Dr Dwaipayan Chakrabarti at d.chakrabarti@bham.ac.uk. For general information on the Chemistry PhD programme at the University of Birmingham, please visit http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/postgraduate/courses/research/chemistry/chemistry-phd.aspx

Apply online at https://pga.bham.ac.uk/lpages/EPS006.htm.

Application deadline:

Applications will be evaluated on a rolling basis until the position is filled. Apply as soon as possible to receive full consideration for admission into the PhD programme by the start of the 2026-27 academic year.

Funding Notes

This funded PhD studentship is for 3.5 years full-time study and covers academic fees at the home rate and a maintenance grant in line with the UKRI rate.