Prof. Rongchao Jin

 

Toward Atomic Precision in Nanoscience

Rongchao Jin

Department of Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213

rongchao@andrew.cmu.edu

 

Recent advances in nanoscience research have marched toward controlling nanoparticles with atomic precision. This talk will present breakthroughs in gold nanoparticle research, including the atomically precise synthesis, total structure determination, and applications in catalysis and sensing. Such perfect gold nanoparticles resemble organic molecules in that they possess definite formulas, Aun(SR)(where SR = thiolate ligand, nand mrefer to the number of gold atoms and surface ligands, respectively). By controlling nanoparticles with atomic precision, one can now reveal the long-sought-after total structures (i.e. metal core plus surface ligands) by X-ray crystallography, as opposed to metal core only in electron microscopy analysis. Significant progress has recently been achieved in determining the total structures, ranging from subnanometer Au18(SR)14 to 2.2 nm Au246(SR)80. These ultrasmall nanoparticles exhibit interesting electronic and optical properties with manifestations of strong quantum size effects. Many other mysteries at the nanoscale, such as isomerization, chirality and periodicities in nanoparticles, as well as nanoscale self-assembly monolayer (SAM) structure, have now been revealed. Such perfect nanoparticles hold potential in chemical catalysis, energy conversion, optics, and sensing applications.