Correlative Tools for in Situ Analysis of Single Nanoparticles and their Ligands

This proposal aims to develop correlative tools to study nanoparticles (NPs) and the immediate surrounding environment at the near-in situ, single-particle level. The group plans to broaden concepts developed in its recent work supported by NSF and here combine multiple tools in a correlative way to gain statistical and multi-functional information of individual nanoparticles. Previously, they studied how NP curvature (positive, negative, and neutral) affected the local chemical and physical properties of gold nanostars (AuNS). Although they identified seedless growth conditions and determined how distinct curvatures resulted in exquisite macroscale properties, they could not identify the intermediates in real time that were key to NP formation or how molecular ligands were distributed on the different regions of curvature. To determine how NP shape and their ligands interact with local environments, high-throughput and real-time, single NP statistical data is required.