学术活动发布与订制系统

Determining the total structures of nanoparticles constitutes a major goal in nanoscience research. Gold nanoparticles are particularly attractive due to their extraordinary stability and elegant optical properties. A prerequisite to total structure determination is to obtain atomically precise nanoparticles, which had been a major challenge in the past research and thus hampered the pursuit of fundamental science of nanoparticles. We have recently developed successful methodologies for synthesizing atomically precise ultrasmall gold nanoparticles (often called nanoclusters) protected by thiolates (denoted as Au_n(SR)_m, with n ranging from a few dozens to hundreds). Such ultrasmall nanoparticles (ca. 1-3 nm) exhibit distinct quantum size effects and interesting electronic/optical properties, which are fundamentally different from the plasmon-dominated properties of their larger counterparts (e.g. 5-100 nm nanoparticles). New types of atom-packing structures have been discovered in Au_n(SR)_m nanoclusters through X-ray crystallographic analysis. These well-defined nanoclusters hold potential in catalysis as new model catalysts, and atomic level structure-reactivity correlation will ultimately offer fundamental understanding on nanocatalysis.

Rongchao Jin received his B.S. in Chemical Physics from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 1995, and M.S. in Physical Chemistry/Catalysis from Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1998, and Ph.D. in chemistry from Northwestern University in 2003. In his PhD work, he worked with Prof Chad A. Mirkin on noble metal nanocrystal synthesis, optical properties, and biological applications. After his Ph.D., he worked at the University of Chicago as Research Associate with Prof Norbert F. Scherer and studied femtosecond laser excited second harmonic generation (SHG) from single metal nanoparticles. In the fall of 2006, he joined the chemistry faculty of Carnegie Mellon University and was promoted to Tenured Associate Professor in 2012 and Full Professor in 2015. His current research interests are atomically precise nanoparticles, optics of nanoparticles, and catalysis.