Núria Aliaga-Alcalde

Núria Aliaga-Alcalde

Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona

Experimental Sciences & Mathematics

In 2003 I finished my PhD at Indiana University (USA) followed by postdoctoral research at the Max Planck Institut für Bioanorganische Chemie (MPI, Germany, 2003-2005) and at Leiden University (The Netherlands, 2005-2007). In 2007 I started as ICREA Researcher at the Department of Inorganic Chemistry of the University of Barcelona (UB) becoming ICREA Research Professor in September 2012 at the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC). I am the head of the "Nanomaterials and Functional Surfaces" group since 2014 (FunNanoSurf, http://departments.icmab.es/funnanosurf/), which is part of the "Functional Surfaces and Interfaces" Research Unit at the ICMAB, and also there, deputy coordinator of the Research Line 4, "Tuneable and Low Cost Molecular Electronics". My research focuses on molecular-based materials, their nanostructuring and applications in the bulk, solution, on surfaces and as active components in electronic devices.

Research interests

My work focuses on the current need for molecular design in Nanoscience, where functional molecules would play a key role as they can provide tunable nanometer-sized homogeneous units and properties ready to be mined (as reliable sensors, switches, quantum computing materials or molecular electronics). My main objectives are the design of specific molecules together with their control and organization on substrates/surfaces/devices where their properties can be exploited. In my group, we synthesize different molecular systems (of 0D-3D, curcuminoid and porphyrinic nature and their respective coordination compounds), characterize and study them on substrates (e.g. graphene, gold, SWCNTs) and analyze their electronic behavior in micro-/nanodevices (e.g. nanoFETs). So far, my work has demonstrated the advantages of our systems as (i) biomarkers and/or sensors, (ii) active components in nanotransistors and as (iii) single molecule magnets.

Selected publications

- Riba-López D, Zaffino R, Herrera D,  Matheu R,  Silvestri F, Ferreira da Silva J, Sañudo EC, Mas-Torrent M, Barrena E, Pfattner R, Ruiz E, Gonzá lez-Campo A & Aliaga-Alcalde N 2022, ‘Dielectric behavior of curcuminoid polymorphs on different substrates by direct soft vacuum deposition’, iScience, vol. 25, iss. 12, 105686, pp.1-29.

- Limon D, Gil-Lianes P et al. 2022, 'Supramolecular Hydrogels Consisting of Nanofibers Increase the Bioavailability of Curcuminoids in Inflammatory Skin Diseases', ACS Applied Nano Materials, vol. 5, no. 10, pp 13829-13839.

- Pfattner R, Laukhina E et al. 2022, 'Emergent Insulator-Metal Transition with Tunable Optical and Electrical Gap in Thin Films of a Molecular Conducting Composite', ACS Applied Electronic Materials, vol. 4, no. 5, pp 2432 - 2441.

- Gil Y Gimeno-Munoz R, Costa de Santana R, Aliaga-Alcalde N, Fuentealba P, Aravena D, Gonzalez-Campo A & Spodine E 2022, 'Luminescence of Macrocyclic Mononuclear DyIII Complexes and Their Immobilization on Functionalized Silicon-Based Surfaces', Inorganic Chemistry, vol. 61, 41, pp 16347-16355.

Selected research activities

- Keynote speaker at the 7th Edition of the Smart Materials and Surfaces 2022 (SMS 2022) in Athens, Greece and at the mini-colloquium: "Physics in 2D Nanoarchitectonics" within CMD29 conference of the European Physical Society, in Manchester, UK.

- Speaker at the XXXVIII Reunión Bienal RSEQ, Granada 2022.

- Master Course instructor at the Universitat Autonoma of Barcelona.

- Management of Tmol4TRANS ERC Consolidator grant.