Previous education: Swarthmore College, B.A., 1997; Yale University, Ph.D., 2003. - Research experience: Harvard University, NIH Postdoctoral Researcher, 2003-2005

The Estroff group is interested in bio-inspired materials synthesis. Biological organisms synthesize composites of inorganic minerals within organic matrices as part of their skeletal systems (Figure 1). As materials scientists, we can learn strategies from biology to create new materials (organic and inorganic) with altered morphologies and materials properties. We can also design in vitro systems to answer questions from biology. The work in the Estroff group takes both of these approaches.

David T. Moore, Hiroaki Sai, Kwan Wee Tan, Lara A. Estroff and Ulrich Wiesner, APL Mat. 2, 081802 (2014);

Tan, K. W., Moore, D. T., Saliba, M., Sai, H., Estroff, L. A., Hanrath, T., … Wiesner, U. (2014). Thermally Induced Structural Evolution and Performance of Mesoporous Block Copolymer-Directed Alumina Perovskite Solar Cells. ACS Nano, (8), 4730–4739.

Saliba, M., Tan, K. W., Sai, H., Moore, D. T., Scott, T., Zhang, W., … Snaith, H. J. (2014). Influence of Thermal Processing Protocol upon the Crystallization and Photovoltaic Performance of Organic–Inorganic Lead Trihalide Perovskites. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C.

Asenath-Smith, E.; Estroff, L. A. "Sectioning of Individual Hematite Pseudocubes With Focused Ion Beam Enables Quantitative Structural Characterization at Nanometer Length Scales", Micros. Microanal., 2014, 20, 635-644. doi:10.1017/S143192761400004X.

Kunitake, M. E.; Mangano, L. M.; Peloquin, J. M.; Baker, S. P.; Estroff, L. A. “Evaluation of strengthening mechanisms in calcite single crystals from mollusk shells”, Acta Biomaterialia, 2013, 9(2), 5353-5359.

Suteewong, T.; Sai, H.; Bradbury, M.; Estroff, L. A.; Gruner, S. M.; Wiesner, U. “Synthesis and Formation Mechanism of Animated Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles”, Chemistry of Materials, 2012, 24(20), 3895-3905.

Kunitake, M. E.; Baker, S. P.; Estroff, L. A. “The Effect of Magnesium on the Hardness of Synthetic and Biogenic Calcite”, MRS Communications, 2012, 2(3), 113-116.

Asenath-Smith, E.; Li, H.; Keene, E. C.; Seh, Z. W.; Estroff, L. A. “Crystal Growth of Calcium Carbonate in Hydrogels as a Model of Biomineralization”,Advanced Functional Materials, 2012, 22(14), 2891-2914.

Dorvee, J. R.; Boskey, A. L.; Estroff, L. A. “Rediscovering hydrogel-based double-diffusion systems for studying biomineralization”, CrystEngComm, 2012, 14(18), 5681-2700.

Estroff, L. A.; Cohen, I. “Biomineralization: Micelles in a crystal”, Nature Materials, 2011, 10(11), 810-811.

Pathi, S. P.; Lin, D. W.; Dorvee, J. R.; Estroff, L. A.; Fischbach, C. "Hydroxyapatite nanoparticle-containing scaffolds for the study of breast cancer bone metastasis", Biomaterials 2011

Li, H. Y.; Xin, H. L.; Kunitake, M. E.; Keene, E. C.; Muller, D. A.; Estroff, L. A. "Calcite Prisms from Mollusk Shells (Atrina rigida): Swiss-cheese-like Organic-inorganic Single-crystal Composites ", Adv. Funct. Mater. 2011, early view online

Wu, C-H; Li, H. Y.; Fong, H. H.; Pozdin, V. A.; Estroff, L. A.; Malliaras G. G. "Room-temperature preparation of crystalline TiO2 thin films and their applications in polymer/TiO2 hybrid optoelectronic devices", Organic Electronics, 2011, 12(6), 1073-1079

Li, H.Y.; Fujiki, Y.; Sada, K.; Estroff, L.A. “Gel Incorporation inside of organic single crystals grown in agarose hydrogels.” CrystEngComm 2011, 13, 1060-1062

Ndao, M; Keene, E.; Amos, F.F.; Rewari, G.; Ponce, C.B.; Estroff, L., Evans, J.S. “An intrinsically disordered mollusk shell prismatic protein that modulates calcium carbonate crystal growth.” Biomacromolecules 2010, 11, 2539-2544.

Keene, E.C.; Evans, J.S.; Estroff, L.A. “Silk Fibroin Hydrogels Coupled with the n16N – β-chitin Complex: An in vitro Organic Matrix for Controlling Calcium Carbonate Mineralization.” Crystal Growth & Design 2010, 10, 5169-5175.

Keene, E.C.; Evans, J. S.; Estroff, L. A.; "Matrix Interactions in Biomineralization: Aragonite nucleation by an intrinsically disordered nacre polypeptide, n16N, associated with a beta-chitin substrate." Crystal Growth and Design 2010, 10 (3), 1383-1389.

Li, H. Y.; Xin, H. L.; Muller, D. A.; Estroff, L. A. "Visualizing the 3D Internal Structure of Calcite Single Crystals Grown in Agarose Hydrogels" Science 2009, 326, 1244-1247.

Li, H.Y.; Estroff, L.A. "Calcite Growth in Hydrogels: Assessing the Mechanism of Polymer Network Incorporation into Single Crystals" Adv. Mater. 2009, 21, 470-473.

Li, H.Y.; Estroff, L.A. "Porous Calcite Single Crystals Grown From a Hydrogel Medium" CrystEngComm, 2007,9,1153-1155.