Anum Nisar

I have done my doctorate in Chemistry from Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. My dissertation, "Interactions and Exciton Transfer in DNA-Based Discrete Nanocrystal Assemblies" Understanding the flow of energy between nanoparticles is important to design systems with advanced optical properties and to incorporate smart materials within energy harvesting applications. The key objective of my thesis is to form discrete nanocrystal assemblies and to investigate the fundamental processes occurring as a consequence of the interactions of the nanoparticles. A robust strategy that utilizes DNA to assemble a variety of nanocrystals, including both metals (AuNP) and quantum dots (QDs), into superstructures is developed. Electrophoresis is used to purify the nanocrystals with a defined number of DNA strands per particle to synthesize dimer, trimer, and core-satellite assemblies. The assembled structures are characterized via Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Transmission electron microscope (TEM).