M.Sc., University of Bologna, Italy; Ph.D., Utrecht University

Colloidal chemistry, material science, and self assembly.

The Sacanna Lab's research focuses on using colloidal matter to engineer nano- and micro-structured new materials. At the interface between chemistry, physics and material science, we design synthetic methods to create smart colloidal building blocks and aim to define and collect general self-assembly principles.

S. Sacanna, M. Korpics, K. Rodriguez, L. Colon-Melendez, S. Kim, D.J. Pine, and G. Yi. Shaping Colloids for Self Assembly. Nature Communications.

J. Palacci, S. Sacanna, A.P. Steinberg, D.J. Pine, and P.M. Chaikin. Living Crystals of Light Activated Colloidal Surfers. Science.

S. Sacanna, D.J. Pine, and G. Yi. Engineering shape: the novel geometries of colloidal self-assembly. Soft Matter.

G. Yi, D.J. Pine, and S. Sacanna. Recent progress on patchy colloids and their self-assembly. J. Phys. Condensed Matter.

A. I. Abrikosov, S. Sacanna, A. P. Philipse and P. Linse. Self-assembly of spherical colloidal particles with off-centered magnetic dipoles. Soft Matter.

S. J. Ivell, R. P. A. Dullens, S. Sacanna, and D. G. A. L. Aarts. Emerging structural disorder in a suspension of uniformly dimpled colloidal particles. Soft Matter.

J. Palacci, S. Sacanna, A. Vatchinsky, P. M. Chaikin, and D. J. Pine. Photo Activated Colloidal Dockers for Cargo Transportation. In press.

Y. Lee, N. B. Schade, L. Sun, J. A. Fan, D. R. Bae, M. M. Mariscal, G. Lee, F. Capasso, S. Sacanna, V. N. Manoharan, G. Yi. Smooth, monocrystalline metallic nanospheres for precision plasmonics.

S. Kim, A.D. Hollingsworth, S. Sacanna, D.J. Pine, and G. Yi. Synthesis and assembly of colloidal particles with sticky dimples. JACS. 134 (39), (2012).

S. Sacanna, L.Rossi and D.J. Pine. Magnetic Click Colloidal Assembly. JACS. 134 (14), (2012).

S. Sacanna and D.J. Pine. Shape-Anisotropic Colloids: Building Blocks for Complex Assemblies, Current Opinion in Colloid & Interface Science, Vol.16, Issue 2, 96-105.

L. Rossi, S. Sacanna, W.T.M. Irvine, P.M. Chaikin, D.J. Pine and A. P. Philipse. Cubic Crystals from Cubic Colloids, Soft Matter, 7 (9), 4139-4142 (2011). (Featured on the May 2011 cover)

S. Sacanna, W.T.M. Irvine, L. Rossi and D.J. Pine. Lock and Key Colloids through Polymerization-Induced Buckling of Monodisperse Silicon Oil Droplets, Soft Matter, 7 (5), 1631-1634 (2011). (Featured on the March 2011 cover)

L. Rossi, S. Sacanna, K. Velikov. Cholesteric colloidal liquid crystals from phytosterol rod-like particles, Soft Matter, 7, 64-67 (2011).

D. J. Kraft, J. W. J. de Folter, B. Luigjes, S. I. R. Castillo, S. Sacanna, A. P. Philipse, W. K. Kegel. Conditions for equilibrium solid-stabilized emulsions. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 114, 10347–10356 (2010).

S. Sacanna, W.T.M. Irvine, P.M. Chaikin and D.J. Pine Lock and Key Colloids, Nature 464, 575-578 (2010).

D. Bonn, J. Otwinowski, S. Sacanna, H. Guo, G. Wegdam and P. Schall Direct Observation of Colloidal Aggregation by Critical Casimir Forces, Physical Review Letters, 103, 156101 (2009).

D. Brogioli, D. Salerno, V. Cassina, S. Sacanna, A. P. Philipse, F. Croccolo, and F. Mantegazza Characterization of anisotropic nano-particles by using depolarized dynamic light scattering in the near field, Optics Express, 17, 1222-1233 (2009).

S. Sacanna, L. Rossi, A. Wouterse and A. P. Philipse Observation of a shape-dependent density maximum in random packings and glasses of colloidal silica ellipsoids, Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter 19 (2007) 376108

S. Sacanna, W. K. Kegel and A. P. Philipse Spontaneous Oil-in-Water Emulsification Induced by Charge-Stabilized Dispersions of Various Inorganic Colloids, Langmuir, 23 (21), 10486-10492, (2007)