CAREER: Single Particle Visualization of Chemical Processes During Multimetallic Nanocrystal Synthesis

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With the support of the Macromolecular, Supramolecular, and Nanochemistry (MSN) Program of the Division of Chemistry at the National Science Foundation, Taylor Woehl at the University of Maryland-College Park will conduct fundamental research on the chemical processes involved in the synthesis of metal nanoparticles, small particles one billionth of a meter in size containing a mixture of different metals. Metal nanoparticles have potential applications as chemical sensors, optical materials, and catalysts in accelerating chemical reactions. A better understanding of the synthetic processes is important for controlling the properties of metal nanoparticles. Students working on this project will gain experience synthesizing and characterizing nanoparticles using state of the art instruments. This CAREER award will support The Nanoscience in Science Fiction (NS2F) program, which will introduce high school students that would not normally seek out extramural STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) activities, including those from under-represented minority groups, to concepts in nanoscience through the window of science fiction. The program aims to improve science literacy of high school students and provide them with positive science role models.In this project, Dr. Taylor Woehl and his team will establish methods to controllably drive solution chemistry with electron beam radiolysis to probe the reaction intermediates formed during solution phase synthesis of multi-metallic nanoparticles from metal thiolate precursors. Correlative liquid phase electron microscopy and mass spectrometry will be used to delineate and visualize molecular and nanoscale reaction intermediates, including metal-ligand complexes, metal nanoclusters, and crystal nuclei, on the single entity scale. Through these experiments, the research team aims to elucidate reaction mechanisms connecting molecular scale (e.g., nanocluster chemistry) and nanoscale chemistry (e.g., crystal nucleation and growth) and to develop new nanocrystal formation theories to account for ‘non-classical’ effects that will enable harnessing reaction intermediates to control the properties of multimetallic nanoparticles.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.