Catalyzing New International Collaboration Between Stevens Institute and Eindhoven University: Catalytic Gold and Silver Nanoparticles for Green Chemistry and Sustainability

许多大规模含氧商品化学品的商业生产目前依赖于具有不期望的副产物的多阶段、能量效率低的方法。开发新的绿色和节能氧化技术来取代这些工艺对于可持续的化学生产至关重要。 该项目将促进史蒂文斯理工学院和荷兰埃因霍温大学的研究人员之间的新合作，以推进对氧气如何与金和银纳米颗粒相互作用的分子水平的理解，以实现化学工业中的绿色化学和可持续性。 该合作将史蒂文斯的新颖实验和计算方法与埃因霍温独特的测试能力结合在一起。项目活动将包括：（a）制备具有可控大小的金和银纳米颗粒的催化材料，（B）利用专门开发的具有固定的金和银纳米颗粒的光子晶体纤维，以显著提高表面分子的检测灵敏度，（c）测试化学反应和在反应条件下进行光谱研究，以及（d）利用量子化学计算对银和金纳米颗粒进行表面建模。这一国际项目将为新的高效和环境友好技术的变革性发展奠定基础，以确保化学生产的可持续性。美国学生将在荷兰的合作实验室度过一段较长的时间，致力于实验和计算方法之间的更紧密结合。研究人员还将在史蒂文斯从事本科和K-12教育推广计划。例如，关于绿色化学和可持续性的金属纳米颗粒的教学模块将用于美国各地200多名高中生的夏令营。

Commercial production of many large scale oxygen-containing commodity chemicals currently relies on multi-stage, energy inefficient processes with undesirable byproducts. The development of new green and energy efficient oxidation technologies to replace such processes is essential for sustainable chemical production. This project will catalyze a new collaboration between researchers at Stevens Institute of Technology and Eindhoven University in the Netherlands to advance the molecular-level understanding of how oxygen interacts with gold and silver nanoparticles for green chemistry and sustainability in the chemical industry. The collaboration brings together the novel experimental and computational methodologies at Stevens with unique testing capabilities at Eindhoven. The project activities will entail (a) preparation of catalytic materials with a controlled size of gold and silver nanoparticles, (b) utilization of a specially developed photonic crystal fiber with immobilized gold and silver nanoparticles for dramatically improved detection sensitivities of molecules on surfaces, (c) testing of chemical reactions and spectroscopic studies under reaction conditions, and (d) surface modeling of silver and gold nanoparticles with quantum-chemical calculations.This international project will establish the basis for the transformative development of new efficient and environmentally friendly technologies to insure sustainability of chemical production. U.S. students will spend an extended period of time at the collaborating laboratories in the Netherlands, working on closer integration between experimental and computational methods. The researchers will also be engaged in undergraduate and K-12 educational outreach programs at Stevens. For example, teaching modules on metal nanoparticles for green chemistry and sustainability will be used in a summer camp for more than 200 high school students from across the U.S.