Researchers across Europe have collaborated to identify the 'music' of different types of nanoparticles.

George Fytas first became interested in the behaviour of acoustic waves in nanomaterials during a seminar on photonic materials by Ned Thomas of Massachusetts Institute of Technology at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPIP) in Mainz. Fytas and Thomas subsequently started a trans-Atlantic collaboration, but Fytas also began multidisciplinary projects with his MPIP colleague Ulrich Jonas and Goetz Hellmann, a chemist at the Deutsches Kunststoff-Institut in Darmstadt.

In the latest project, Fytas, Jonas, Hellmann and their students have teamed up with Rebecca Sainidou, a theoretical physicist at Instituto de Óptica in Madrid, to explore the mechanical properties of nanoparticles that have a silica core inside a polymer shell, and of hollow polymer spheres. In particular, they have used Brillouin light-scattering and numerical calculations to show how the vibrational modes of these particles — or the 'music' — depend on the size of the particles (Nano Lett. 8, 3194–3199; 2008).

“Finding a common language in interdisciplinary collaborations is not easy,” says Fytas, “and it is important to always keep the interest and motivation high. The reward is we can say we have now 'heard' the music of submicron core–shell particles. But more rewarding was the fruitful collaboration between the three PhD students involved — Peter Spahn, Markus Retsch and Tim Still.”

What advice does he have for others? “First, a good research problem with broad interest should be formulated,” he advises. “Then find good partners with expertise truly different from yours.” It is also important, stresses Fytas, that the partners find the problem to be equally fascinating. “The presumption that colleagues of different backgrounds will understand you immediately is risky,” he says. “You must be convinced that direct and honest communication of problems, findings or mistakes is common among all members.”