CAREER: Surface Chemistry-Controlled Formation of Colloidal Nanoparticle Alloys

化学系的高分子、超分子和纳米化学(MSN)计划将支持匹兹堡大学吉尔·米尔斯通教授的职业研究和教育计划。米尔斯通教授和她的学生将开发表面化学驱动的方法，以制备广泛的过渡金属和贵金属纳米合金。这些合金表现出独特的光学、磁性和催化行为，使其在从近红外(NIR)成像到多相催化的各种技术中具有吸引力。米尔斯通教授和她的学生将研究粒子-配体相互作用、分子间配体作用力和溶剂-配体化学的影响，以调整纳米颗粒中的原子组成和原子分布。配体种类的作用将通过结合电子显微镜等标准纳米颗粒分析技术和经典的分子表征方法(如核磁共振光谱)来跟踪，其中核磁共振允许人们同时获得关于纳米颗粒表面和配体环境的详细信息。这项拟议研究的成功完成将引入一个合成框架，该框架连接了对合金形成的分子和整体描述，并提供了一条直截了当、可持续的途径，通向以前无法进入的同质合金纳米结构类别。然后，这些定义明确的体系结构为从化石燃料转换到癌症检测的各种应用提供了有前景的平台。米尔斯通教授的职业教育计划专注于开发一个维基百科风格的网站，致力于纳米化学。对于对学习、教学或进行纳米材料合成感兴趣的广大学生和教职员工来说，这个网站将成为一个“活的”资源，但他们获得必要的专业知识的途径有限，无法有效地参与其中。

The Macromolecular, Supramolecular, and Nanochemistry (MSN) program of the Division of Chemistry will support the CAREER research and education program of Prof. Jill Millstone at the University of Pittsburgh. Prof. Millstone and her students will develop surface-chemistry driven methods for preparing a broad range of transition and noble metal nanoparticle alloys. These alloys exhibit unique optical, magnetic, and catalytic behaviors that make them attractive for technologies ranging from near-infrared (NIR) imaging to heterogeneous catalysis. Prof. Millstone and her students will investigate the impact of particle-ligand interactions, intermolecular ligand forces, and solvent-ligand chemistry to tune both the atomic composition and atom distribution throughout the nanoparticle. The role of ligand species will be tracked by combining standard nanoparticle analysis techniques such as electron microscopy with classic molecular characterization approaches such as nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), where NMR allows one to simultaneously acquire detailed information about both nanoparticle surface and ligand environments. Successful completion of the proposed study will introduce a synthetic framework that bridges molecular and bulk descriptions of alloy formation and provides a straightforward, sustainable route to a previously inaccessible class of homogeneous-alloy nanostructures. These well-defined architectures then provide promising platforms for applications ranging from fossil fuel conversion to cancer detection. The CAREER educational plans of Prof. Millstone focus on the development of a Wikipedia-style website devoted to nanochemistry. This website will act as a "living" resource for a broad community of students and faculty who are interested in learning, teaching, or performing nanomaterial synthesis but who have limited access to the expertise necessary to begin their involvement productively.