NIRT: Electronic Interactions in Hybrid Organic-Nanoparticle Materials

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Elena Galoppini of Rutgers University at Newark, Gerald Meyer of Johns Hopkins University and Piotr Piotrowiak of Rutgers University at Newark, are supported by a NIRT grant (Nanoscience Interdisciplinary Research Teams) for their interdisciplinary effort to improve our fundamental understanding of electronic interactions at organic molecule-nanoparticle interfaces and to allow us to control them in a predictable manner. The research employs synthetic methodologies that allow control over the distance and orientation of surface bound organic molecules with respect to the nanoparticle surface. The materials that will be prepared will enable these researchers to probe long-standing fundamental questions concerning interfacial electronic interactions in molecular detail that was not previously possible. Experiments will be carried out in which the position of redox and photo-active organic compounds relative to a nanoparticle surface will be fixed to control and tune the interfacial electronic interactions through systematic molecular-level variation of surface-attached dyes and nanoparticle materials. The preparation of assemblies of molecular components (supramolecular structures) that perform desired functions such as light harvesting antennas or fluorescent sensors is a significant long term research goal. This research will probe interfacial interactions between semiconductor nanoparticles and attached molecular species. The research will contribute to our fundamental understanding of electronic interactions occuring at the interfaces between semiconductor nanoparticles and attached molecular species in order that we might control them in a predictable manner. Graduate students, undergraduate students and postdocs will receive excellent training and research experiences in a forefront nanoscience research program.