Nicole Iverson, assistant professor of biological systems engineering, recently received the Outstanding Educator of the Year Award from Beta Theta Pi.
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An interdisciplinary team of engineering faculty had their research – “In Situ Electron Microscopy of Plasmon-Mediated Nanocrystal Synthesis” – featured in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS). The team included Peter Sutter, professor of electrical and computer engineering; Yusong Li, associate professor of civil engineering; Christos Argyropoulos, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering; and Eli Sutter, professor of mechanical and materials engineering.
The team investigates unknowns using in situ scanning transmission electron microscopy on Ag nanoprisms undergoing plasmon-mediated growth in solution. This technique both drives the plasmon-stimulated synthesis process and allows the researchers to quantify how the nanoprisms’ lateral size and thickness change over time. Their results show that growth gradually transitions from incorporation of Ag0 just in the prism side facets early in the synthesis process to Ag0 incorporation in the basal (111) facets, which increases thickness. They connect differences in the Ag0 attachment rate at this later phase to local plasmonic field enhancements. The authors suggest that this better understanding might be used to tune the plasmon-mediated growth of nanocrystals in solution.
Read the article: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.7b03668