Hsien Cheng Huang

(Advisor: Prof. Vladimir V. Tsukruk)

will defend a doctoral thesis entitled,

Ionic and Interfacial Assembly of Inorganic–Organic Hybrid Nanomaterials with Chiral and Magnetic Functions

on

Tuesday, November 10, 2026,

at

11:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.

in

Molecular Science and Engineering Building (MoSE) Room 1226

Abstract

Inorganic–organic hybrid nanomaterials with chiral and magnetic functions are promising for chiral photonics and enantioselective sensing, as well as for magnetically recoverable adsorbents and catalysts, because they combine the robustness of an inorganic component with the chemical tailorability of an organic one. However, these functions are usually installed through covalent synthesis or in organic solvents, and the resulting nanoscale building blocks are often fragile or metastable. How aqueous, non-covalent processing relates to the nanoscale structure and functional properties of these hybrids remains largely unexplored.

This work examines ionic pairing and interfacial coordination in water as processing routes to chiral and magnetic hybrid nanomaterials, and relates the resulting nanoscale structures to the chiroptical and magnetic functions of the hybrids. First, sulfonated polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) nanocages were paired ionically with the amino acid L-tryptophan. The amino acid keeps its chirality on the rigid inorganic cage, while the cage makes the hybrid more robust and directs its assembly into ordered nanostructures. Second, a one-pot aqueous synthesis was developed in which solution basicity switches the shape of the layered zeolitic imidazolate framework ZIF-L, and magnetic nanoparticles attached to the ZIF-L surfaces add magnetic response and protect the metastable layered phase. Third, preliminary results combine the two approaches: magnetic nanoparticles leave the chirality of an ionic POSS–amino acid hybrid unchanged in solution and add in-plane order to its films, and POSS–nanoparticle hybrids can be organized by a magnetic field.

Together, these results identify the mobile ionic counterion and the nanoparticle surface as general design handles for functional hybrid materials made in water. This work provides a basis for the design of robust, water-processable chiral and magnetic nanomaterials, from chiral optical films to recoverable materials for water treatment.

Committee Members:

Prof. Vladimir V. Tsukruk (Advisor) – School of Materials Science and Engineering

Prof. Blair Brettmann – School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Prof. Scott Danielsen – School of Materials Science and Engineering

Prof. Shucong Li – School of Materials Science and Engineering

Prof. Todd Sulchek – George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering

Dr. Dhriti Nepal – Air Force Research Laboratory