Correlating optical properties of self-assembled metal nanoparticles with their fine nanoscale structure via co-registration of electron microscopy...

全标题：通过电子显微镜和光学询问方法的共同配准将自组装金属纳米颗粒的光学性质与其精细的纳米结构相关联尽管在确定光学刺激对金纳米颗粒和分子间隔物系统的行为的影响方面已经取得了很大进展，但它们的纳米级过程仍然未知。目前关于纳米结构的许多假设都是基于光学模型和对所涉及的成分的普遍假设。该项目旨在详细研究这些系统在纳米尺度上的结构、电子和光学行为，以优化它们的稳定性和性能，用于可持续的化学和能量收集应用。为此，将对等离子体材料的稳定性和迁移率/扩散率进行比较研究。典型的等离子体材料是铸币金属(金、银、铜)，但这些金属往往相对较软，导致在辐射下观察到的表面原子的高迁移率，限制了它们的实际应用。因此，纳米结构材料往往会变形，产生与那些为理解样品而假设和建模的结构明显不同的结构。要克服这一点，必须更好地理解分子的自组装单分子膜如何改变金属表面的行为。更详细地了解这一行为对于设计能量上有利的、因此更耐用的等离子体应用纳米结构至关重要。

Full Title: Correlating optical properties of self-assembled metal nanoparticles with their fine nanoscale structure via co-registration of electron microscopy and optical interrogation methodsAlthough much progress has been made on establishing the impact of optical stimuli on the behaviour of gold nanoparticle and molecular spacer systems, their nanoscale processes are still unknown. Many of the current hypotheses pertaining to the nanoscale structure are based on optical modelling and generalised assumptions on the constituents involved. This project aims to investigate in detail how these systems behave structurally, electronically and optically at the nanoscale, to optimise their stability and performance for sustainable chemistry and energy harvesting applications. To this end, a comparative study on the stability and mobility/diffusivity of plasmonic materials will be made. Typical plasmonic materials are coinage metals (Au, Ag, Cu), but these tend to be relatively 'soft', resulting in a high mobility in the surface atoms being observed under irradiation, limiting their practical applications. As a result, nanostructured materials tend to deform, yielding significantly altered structures from those hypothesised and modelled for understanding the sample. To overcome this, it is essential to develop a better understanding of how self-assembled monolayers of molecules alter the behaviour of metalsurfaces. Understanding this behaviour in more detail is crucial to the design of energetically favourable and thus more durable nanoarchitectures for plasmonic applications.