Directed nanoparticle growth by oriented aggregation

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In this project funded by the Macromolecular, Supramolecular and Nanochemistry Program of the Chemistry Division, R. L. Penn of the University of Minnesota will seek to understand the fundamental chemical principles underlying nanoparticle crystal growth by the oriented aggregation mechanism. The approach is to utilize an array of scattering and microscopy techniques to study nanocrystal growth as a function of reaction conditions and time. In particular, four key hypotheses will be tested regarding the effects of surface charge, passivating agents, poor crystal faceting, and sequential reaction solution changes upon the structures and compositions of the resulting nanocrystals. The broader impacts involve training undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers, disseminating research results, enhancing infrastructure for research and education through remote viewing of live microscopy in the classroom, and developing a laboratory module on nanocrystals for high school and middle school classes.This work will expand our understanding about how to grow particles with dimensions on the order of one billionth of a meter with a high degree of control over structure and composition. The results of these studies could have many important long term impacts on nanotechnology fields in which nanoparticles are used, including medical imaging, display materials, and photovoltaics.