CAREER: Leveraging Atomically-Precise Inorganic Clusters to Understand Nanoparticle Synthesis

在化学系高分子、超分子和纳米化学项目的支持下，莱斯大学的Matthew Jones博士将探索金属纳米颗粒形成的基本过程。这些结构比人类头发的宽度小约一万倍，表现出卓越的光学和催化特性，可能成为未来生物医学、能源存储和计算技术的基础。借助这笔资金，琼斯博士将通过用原子上明确定义的较小分子“播种”金属纳米颗粒的生长来扩大对金属纳米颗粒形成的理解。与这些科学目标相结合的是一项教育推广计划，旨在通过与休斯顿当地一所高中合作，提高国家 STEM 劳动力的多样性，该高中专门为服务不足的移民和难民社区提供服务。这所学校的科学教师将参加琼斯实验室资助的夏季研究实习，而这些教师课堂上的学生将通过实验室练习和演示参与琼斯博士的纳米科学外展小组。通过创建一个将代表性不足的学生和教师的培训与莱斯大学的资源相结合的项目，将产生一批多元化的、受过 STEM 教育的学生，他们可以满足 21 世纪的劳动力需求。琼斯研究小组将通过开发一个研究项目来探索种子介导的各向异性金纳米颗粒合成的机制，该项目旨在表征约 1 nm 长度尺度上发生的生长动态。 这项工作旨在揭示基于簇的纳米颗粒生长机制，以帮助将纳米级合成发展为化学上更可预测的科学。在目标 1 中，将合成并表征不同尺寸、对称性和配体组成的原子级精确纳米团簇库。在目标 2 中，将研究团簇内和团簇内的生长、溶解和聚结过程，这些过程会导致不同化学环境中团簇种群的重新分布。最后，在目标 3 中，将仔细研究基于簇的反应性在定义从这些前体生长的纳米颗粒的对称性和形态方面所起的作用，着眼于建立基于反应性和生长机制预测纳米颗粒结构的新方法。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With the support of the Macromolecular, Supramolecular and Nanochemistry Program in the Division of Chemistry, Dr. Matthew Jones of Rice University will explore the fundamental processes underlying the formation of metallic nanoparticles. These structures, approximately ten thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair, exhibit remarkable optical and catalytic properties that may form the basis for future technologies in biomedicine, energy storage, and computing. With this funding, Dr. Jones will expand the understanding of metallic nanoparticle formation by “seeding” their growth with smaller molecules that are atomically well-defined. Coupled to these scientific goals is a program of educational outreach that aims to improve the diversity of the nation’s STEM workforce by partnering with a local high school in Houston that caters exclusively to underserved immigrant and refugee communities. Science teachers at this school will take part in a funded summer research internship in the Jones laboratory while the students in the classrooms of these teachers will be engaged by Dr. Jones’ nanoscience outreach group via laboratory exercises and demonstrations. By creating a program that integrates the training of underrepresented students and teachers with the resources of Rice University, a pipeline of diverse, STEM-educated students will be generated who can serve the workforce needs of the 21st century.The Jones research group will explore the mechanisms underlying the seed-mediated synthesis of anisotropic gold nanoparticles by developing a research program that aims to characterize growth dynamics occurring at the ~1 nm length scale. This work seeks to uncover cluster-based mechanisms for nanoparticle growth to help develop nanoscale synthesis into a more chemically-predictable science. In objective 1, a library of atomically-precise nanoclusters of differing size, symmetry, and ligand composition are to be synthesized and characterized. In objective 2, the inter- and intra-cluster growth, dissolution, and coalescence processes that result in a redistribution of the cluster population in different chemical environments will be studied. Finally, in objective 3, the role that cluster-based reactivity plays in defining the symmetry and morphology of nanoparticles grown from these precursors will be examined carefully with an eye toward establishing new approaches to predicting nanoparticle structure based upon reactivity and growth mechanism.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.