CAREER: Structure of Inorganic Nanoparticle Surface Interfaces Plus Multidisciplinary Nanochemistry Undergraduate Teaching Lab

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With this CAREER Award, the Macromolecular Supramolecular and Nanochemistry Program of the Chemistry Division is funding Professor Christopher J. Ackerson of Colorado State University to develop a better understanding of metal nanoparticle surfaces. Metal nanoparticles have dimensions of 1 billionth of a meter. At this small scale, metallic particles have properties that are different than those of familiar bulk metals. Understanding what the surfaces of nanoparticles look like, and how these surfaces behave pose special challenges for scientific study. This project aims to produce an improved picture of metal nanoparticle surfaces, with improved understanding of how these surfaces behave. This improved understanding may yield dividends in applications of nanoparticles for catalysis, medicines, and research enabling tools. The educational goal of this project is to enhance undergraduate scientific education by developing a nanoscience teaching laboratory course that covers the synthesis and characterization of nanostructured materials. The majority of the class uses methods that are not part of the undergraduate chemistry curriculum, but are widely used in the research science setting. The broader impacts of the project developing a gold nanoparticle outreach activity at the Fort Collins Museum of Science and Discoverys annual 4th Grade Rendezvous, where Ackerson and team members will relate the history of gold mining in Colorado to the modern scientific study of gold chemistry.The research objective of this project is to improve understanding of the structure and reactivity of metal nanoparticle surfaces. The Ackerson group will endeavor to establish the structural basis of ligand exchange on inorganic nanoparticles, beginning with thiolate protected gold nanoparticles. The research team will use the surprisingly low symmetry nanomolecules Au102(SR)44 and Au25(SR)18 as starting points to establish a mechanistic understanding of ligand exchange. These studies are also directed at understanding weak ligand binding and how multivalent weak ligands can create dynamic assemblies of nanoclusters with emergent optical and spin properties. The broader impacts of this work include the generation of atomisitic models of mixed ligand shells that will underpin theory work done by others, as well as the dissemination of materials and expertise into disciplinary labs in biological electron microscopy and nano-biomedicine.