Electrochemistry as a Design Tool for Colloidal Syntheses of Polyhedral Metal Nanoparticles

在化学系大分子、超分子和纳米化学项目的支持下，卫斯理大学的Michelle L. Personick博士将使用实时电化学测量来探测纳米级金属颗粒的生长。金属纳米颗粒在传感、生物医学成像、化学制造和可持续燃料的催化等方面都有很好的应用。它们的光学性质和催化性能不仅可以通过控制它们的组成和大小，而且可以通过控制它们的形状来定制。本研究旨在了解纳米颗粒的生长机制，建立核心化学原理，为金属纳米材料的审慎、预测性设计提供信息，以满足日益复杂的新兴应用需求。参与本研究的研究生、本科生和高中生将为未来在化学、材料科学和化学工程领域的职业生涯做好准备。该项目还将通过开发公共资源，增加家庭中第一个攻读本科科学课程的学生的可及性，从而促进对科学和研究的参与。该项目专注于一个重要的，但很大程度上尚未开发的基础研究领域，即利用电化学纳米颗粒合成作为了解纳米颗粒生长机制和预测设计胶体合成策略的工具。Personick博士的研究团队开创了一种创新的综合电化学方法，用于阐明在金属纳米颗粒生长过程中控制表面金属离子还原的潜在化学因素。该方法将涉及复杂条件下金属离子还原的电化学测量、明确条件下电极表面电化学驱动的纳米颗粒生长以及使用化学还原剂的胶体纳米颗粒生长之间的动态反馈。本研究旨在克服纳米材料合成中的关键挑战：(1)实现对金属纳米颗粒生长的化学反应和机制的实时监测；(2)在纳米颗粒生长溶液的组成中引入额外的灵活性，以单独定义在标准胶体合成中无法区分的化学参数的机制影响；(3)为定向设计具有目前无法实现的结构和成分的贵金属纳米颗粒提供了一条途径。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识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. Michelle L. Personick of Wesleyan University will use real-time electrochemical measurements to probe the growth of nano-sized metal particles. Metal nanoparticles have useful applications in sensing, biomedical imaging, and catalysis for chemical manufacturing and generation of sustainable fuels. Their optical properties and catalytic performance can be tailored not only by controlling their composition and size, but also their shape. This research aims to understand nanoparticle growth mechanisms and establish core chemical principles to inform the deliberate, predictive design of metal nanomaterials to meet the increasingly complex needs of emerging applications. Graduate, undergraduate, and high school students who are involved in this research will be prepared for future careers at the interface of chemistry, materials science, and chemical engineering. The project will also contribute to enhancing participation in science and research by developing publicly available resources to increase the accessibility of undergraduate science for students who are the first in their family to pursue this course of study. This project focuses on an important, but largely unexplored, area of fundamental research in using electrochemical nanoparticle synthesis as a tool to understand nanoparticle growth mechanisms and to predictively design colloidal synthetic strategies. Dr. Personick’s research team pioneers an innovative, integrated electrochemical approach for elucidating the underlying chemical factors that control the reduction of metal ions at surfaces during the growth of metal nanoparticles. This approach will involve dynamic feedback between electrochemical measurements of metal ion reduction under complex conditions, electrochemically driven nanoparticle growth on electrode surfaces under well-defined conditions, and colloidal nanoparticle growth using chemical reducing agents. This research aims to overcome key challenges in nanomaterials synthesis by (1) enabling real-time monitoring of the chemical reactions and mechanisms of metal nanoparticle growth; (2) introducing added flexibility in the composition of nanoparticle growth solutions to separately define the mechanistic influences of chemical parameters that are not distinguishable in standard colloidal synthesis; and (3) providing a route to the directed design of noble metal nanoparticles with currently unachievable architectures and compositions.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.