Aliaga Alcalde, Núria
ICREA Research Professor at Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona (CSIC - ICMAB).
Experimental Sciences & Mathematics
Short biography
I completed my doctorate in 2003 at the University of Indiana (USA). Then, I carried out two post-doctorates in a row at the Max Planck Institut für Bioanorganische Chemie (MPI, Germany, 2003-2005) and at the Leiden University (The Netherlands, 2005-2007). In 2007 I started as ICREA Researcher in the Department of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Barcelona (UB) and in September 2012 became ICREA Researcher Professor at the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC). I am the group leader of "Functional Nanomaterials & Surfaces" since 2014 (FunNanoSurf, http://departments.icmab.es/funnanosurf/), included in the Research Unit of "Functional Surfaces and interfaces" at the same institute. My research focuses on molecular-based materials, their nanostructuration and application taking advantage of their magnetic, electronic and/or fluorescent properties in the bulk, on surfaces and as active components in nanodevices.
Research interests
My work focuses on the present need of molecular design in Nanoscience, where functional molecules would play a key role since they can provide homogeneous tunable nanometer-size units and properties ready to be exploited (as reliable sensors, switches, quantum computing materials or molecular electronics). Main targets are the design of specific molecules together with their control and organization on substrates/surfaces/nanodevices where their properties can be used. In my group, we synthesize different molecular-based systems (from 0D-3D, of curcuminoid and porphyrinic nature and respective coordination compounds), characterize and study them on substrates (eg.: graphene, gold, SWCNTs) and analyze their electronic behavior on nanodevices (eg.: nanoFETs). So far, our work has shown the advantages of our systems as (i) biomarkers and/or sensors, (ii) active components in nano-transistors and as (iii) Single-Molecule Magnets.