Vicki Meli
Biography
I completed my PhD at McGill University (Chemistry) where I studied nanopatterned surfaces made using self-assembling block copolymer films in the Lennox lab. In 2005 I was granted an FQRNT (Quebec) postdoctoral fellowship to study the interactions of thermotropic liquid crystals with biological lipids and gold nanoparticles at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (Chemical and Biological Engineering) in the Abbott lab until starting at Mount Allison in July 2007.
My research in interfacial nanopatterning is rooted in experimental physical chemistry, surface and interface chemistry, and nanoscience.
Publications
Raveendran A, DeWolf CE, Bu W, McWhirter S*, Meron M, Lin B, Meli MV. J. Phys. Chem. C. 2018 , 122, 2975-2982.
Raveendran A, Meli MV. Tunable mechanical properties of nanoparticle monolayer membranes via ligand phase control and defect distribution. ACS Omega 2017, 2(8) : 4411-4416.
McCormack TJ, Rundle A*, Malek M*, Raveendran A, Meli MV. Gold nanoparticles partition to and increase the activity of glucose-6-phosphatase in a synthetic phospholipid membrane system. PLoS ONE 2017 , 12(8) : e0183274.
Bradford SM*, Fisher EA*, Meli MV. Ligand Shell Composition-Dependent Effects on the Apparent Hydrophobicity and Film Behavior of Gold Nanoparticles at the Air-Water Interface. Langmuir 2016 , 32(38): 9790-9796.
Lardner MJ*, Taweel AM*, Meli MV. *Cover Article* Effects of gold nanoparticle film morphology on the alignment of a nematic liquid crystal. Liquid Crystals 2015, 42(4): 497-505.
Fisher EA*, Duffy SJ, Meli MV. The determination of ligand shell composition of bifunctional alkanethiol-capped gold nanoparticles using GC/MS/MS. RSC Advances 2015, 5(42): 33289-33293.
Brandon P. Gagnon, M. -Vicki Meli. Effects on the Self-Assembly of n‑Alkane/Gold Nanoparticle Mixtures Spread at the Air−Water Interface. Langmuir2014, 30(1), 179−185.
Katelynn D. Comeau, M. -Vicki Meli. Effect of Alkanethiol Chain Length on Gold Nanoparticle Monolayers at the Air!Water Interface. Langmuir (2012) 28 (1), 377-381.
Jugal K. Gupta, Maria-Victoria Meli, Sarah Teren, and Nicholas L. Abbott. Elastic Energy-Driven Phase Separation of Phospholipid Monolayers at the Nematic Liquid-Crystal- Aqueous Interface. Physical Review Letters (2008) 100, 048301-2.
Maria-Victoria Meli, I-Hsin Lin, Nicholas L. Abbott. Preparation of Microscopic and Planar Oil−Water Interfaces That Are Decorated with Prescribed Densities of Insoluble Amphiphiles. Journal of the American Chemical Society (2008) 130(13), 4326-4333.
Gary M. Koenig Jr., Maria-Victoria Meli, Juan J. de Pablo, Nicholas L. Abbott. Coupling of the Plasmon Resonance of Chemically Functionalized Gold Nanoparticles to Local Order in Thermotropic Liquid Crystals. Chemistry of Materials (2007) 19, 1053-1061.
Maria-Victoria Meli, R. Bruce Lennox. Surface Plasmon Resonance of Au Nanoparticle Arrays Partially Embedded into Quartz. J. Phys. Chem. C. (2007) 111(9), 3658-3664.
Maria-Victoria Meli, R. Bruce Lennox. The Wetting of Gold and Silicon Nanoscale Arrays. Langmuir (2007) 23(4), 1619-1622.
Maria-Victoria Meli, Antonella Badia, Peter Grütter, and R. Bruce Lennox. Self-Assembled Masks for the Transfer of Nanometer-Scale Patterns into Surfaces: Characterization by AFM and LFM. Nano Letters (2002) 2(2), 131-135.
Education
- 2005-2007 Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- 1999-2005 Ph.D. Chemistry, McGill University
- 1995-1999 B.Sc. Chemistry, McGill University
Research
Research in the Meli lab centres on the fabrication and characterisation of nanostructured films formed at interfaces. Primarily, we are interested in understanding and influencing the self-assembly of nanoparticles into monolayer films at air-water and oil-water interfaces. Achieving control over nanoparticle spacing and organization within films would have exciting consequences in many applications, including sensors, surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy, nano-photonics and electronics. Generally, projects in the Meli fall within two broad themes:
1) Nanoparticle self-assembly at the air/water interface: these projects aim to manipulate the self-assembly by making systematic changes to the nanoparticle-nanoparticle interactions (via core size, ligand functionality and phase state, the addition of additional components, and temperature).
2) Nanoparticle self-assembly at oil/water interfaces: these projects aim to manipulate the self-assembly by making systematic changes to the interfacial properties (via use of different oils, including anisotropic oils such as liquid crystals).