CAREER: Structure of Inorganic Nanoparticle Surface Interfaces Plus Multidisciplinary Nanochemistry Undergraduate Teaching Lab

通过这个职业奖，化学部的大分子、超分子和纳米化学项目资助了科罗拉多州立大学的Christopher J. Ackerson教授，以更好地理解金属纳米颗粒表面。金属纳米颗粒的尺寸为十亿分之一米。在这种小尺度下，金属颗粒具有不同于我们熟悉的大块金属的特性。了解纳米颗粒的表面是什么样子，以及这些表面如何表现，对科学研究提出了特殊的挑战。这个项目的目的是产生一个改进的金属纳米颗粒表面的图像，提高对这些表面行为的理解。这种改进的理解可能会在纳米颗粒用于催化、药物和研究工具方面的应用中产生红利。该项目的教育目标是通过开发涵盖纳米结构材料的合成和表征的纳米科学教学实验课程来加强本科科学教育。大多数课程使用的方法不是本科化学课程的一部分，但在研究科学环境中广泛使用。在柯林斯堡科学与发现博物馆举办的年度四年级聚会上，阿克森和团队成员将把科罗拉多州金矿开采的历史与黄金化学的现代科学研究联系起来，这一项目将产生更广泛的影响。该项目的研究目的是提高对金属纳米颗粒表面结构和反应性的认识。Ackerson小组将努力建立无机纳米颗粒上配体交换的结构基础，从硫化物保护的金纳米颗粒开始。研究小组将使用令人惊讶的低对称性纳米分子Au102(SR)44和Au25(SR)18作为起点，建立对配体交换的机制理解。这些研究还旨在了解弱配体结合以及多价弱配体如何创建具有涌现光学和自旋特性的纳米团簇的动态组装。这项工作的广泛影响包括生成混合配体壳的原子模型，这将为其他人的理论工作奠定基础，以及将材料和专业知识传播到生物电子显微镜和纳米生物医学的学科实验室。

With this CAREER Award, the Macromolecular Supramolecular and Nanochemistry Program of the Chemistry Division is funding Professor Christopher J. Ackerson of Colorado State University to develop a better understanding of metal nanoparticle surfaces. Metal nanoparticles have dimensions of 1 billionth of a meter. At this small scale, metallic particles have properties that are different than those of familiar bulk metals. Understanding what the surfaces of nanoparticles look like, and how these surfaces behave pose special challenges for scientific study. This project aims to produce an improved picture of metal nanoparticle surfaces, with improved understanding of how these surfaces behave. This improved understanding may yield dividends in applications of nanoparticles for catalysis, medicines, and research enabling tools. The educational goal of this project is to enhance undergraduate scientific education by developing a nanoscience teaching laboratory course that covers the synthesis and characterization of nanostructured materials. The majority of the class uses methods that are not part of the undergraduate chemistry curriculum, but are widely used in the research science setting. The broader impacts of the project developing a gold nanoparticle outreach activity at the Fort Collins Museum of Science and Discoverys annual 4th Grade Rendezvous, where Ackerson and team members will relate the history of gold mining in Colorado to the modern scientific study of gold chemistry.The research objective of this project is to improve understanding of the structure and reactivity of metal nanoparticle surfaces. The Ackerson group will endeavor to establish the structural basis of ligand exchange on inorganic nanoparticles, beginning with thiolate protected gold nanoparticles. The research team will use the surprisingly low symmetry nanomolecules Au102(SR)44 and Au25(SR)18 as starting points to establish a mechanistic understanding of ligand exchange. These studies are also directed at understanding weak ligand binding and how multivalent weak ligands can create dynamic assemblies of nanoclusters with emergent optical and spin properties. The broader impacts of this work include the generation of atomisitic models of mixed ligand shells that will underpin theory work done by others, as well as the dissemination of materials and expertise into disciplinary labs in biological electron microscopy and nano-biomedicine.