NANOSPHERE · NANOStructure Photochemistry via Hot Electron driven REactions
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2015-03-15 → 2017-03-14
- EU contribution
- €183,455
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
NANOStructure Photochemistry via Hot Electron driven REactions
The self-assembly of metal nanoparticles into higher order nanostructures is a high impact area of research for many reasons. Firstly, the chemical fabrication and assembly of organised structures is an essential prerequisite for understanding how complexity arises in living systems. A second aspect driving research in this direction is related to the harnessing and control of light at the nanoscale. Thirdly, these systems can generate high-energy ‘hot’ electrons. Oscillating electric fields surrounding nanoparticles, termed plasmons, can decay into high-energy electrons, which have sparked intense research in plasmon-induced chemical reactions and catalysis. Finally, these new and complex, composite materials exhibit unusual optical properties, which lend themselves to applications, such as plasmon-enhanced solar light harvesting and photocatalysis, ultrasensitive chemical and biological sensors, optical circuitry and metamaterials. The spacing between nanoparticles within an assembled nanoparticle structure ultimately determines the structures optical properties, as well as the strength of the optical near field that can be focussed between particles. It is therefore crucial that inter-particle spacing be controlled with utmost accuracy. Whilst synthetic routes for controlling nanoparticle size and shape have dramatically improved during the past two decades, the development of methods for controlling inter-particle spacing in assembled nanostructures has remained a fundamental scientific challenge. Although nanoparticles and assembled nanoparticle structures offer orders of magnitude increases in performance in a wide variety of applications, such applications have not as-of-yet benefited from nanostructure incorporation due to the difficulty in assembling nanostructures reproducibly with accurate control of inter-particle spacing, despite intense research. This research proposal aimed to utilise the unique macrocyclic host-guest chemistry of cucurbit[n]urils in conjunction with metal nanoparticles to demonstrate a novel and malleable approach to nanoparticle self-assembly, resulting in structures that will be used in light-driven chemical reactions and advanced molecular sensing.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The current research proposal aims utilise the unique macrocyclic host guest chemistry of cucurbiturils in conjunction with metal nanoparticles to demonstrate a novel and malleable approach to nanoparticle self-assembly, resulting in structures that will be used in light driven chemical reactions and advanced molecular sensing. This represents an important area of research, for whilst nanoparticles and assembled nanostructures show promise in a wide variety of applications, their uptake into current technologies has stalled due to the difficulty of their production, post-assembly manipulation and chemical loading. This project will demonstrate a new paradigm of functionality and versatility in nanoarchitectures. This will be achieved by assembling nanoparticle structures with a unique group of rigid macrocycle assembly agents, cucurbiturils. Cucurbiturils, with their versatile host-guest complexation chemistry, will allow for post assembly control of nanostructures via multiple external stimuli, while also giving flexibility in terms of application, with many kinds of molecules able to be loaded into the inner cavity of the cucurbiturils, yielding chemical sensing and reactor constructs on the nanoscale.Fundamental insights will be gained into the assembly and manipulation of nanoparticle superstructures, with an eye for application. To this end, Dr. Steven Barrow, the applicant, will work with Dr. Oren Scherman, in collaboration with Prof. Jeremy Baumberg. This linkage represents a unique opportunity to explore nanoscale systems at the University of Cambridge. This project will be highly supported in both the Chemistry department with Dr. Scherman, as well as the Physics department with Prof. Baumberg, at the University of Cambridge. The University of Cambridge is world renowned for its high impact research in the fields of chemistry and physics and this project represents a unique opportunity for collaboration between the two departments.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE · CAMBRIDGECoordinatorUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union