"Site-Specific Colloidal Synthesis"
Nanosynthesis is an emerging field studying the creation of nanostructures. Despite tremendous progress, the synthetic capabilities are still largely limited to simple component and symmetrical nanocrystals. The first part of this talk will give an overview on the research activities in the Chen Group, where various complex nanostructures may find unexpected application via collaborations. The second part will focus on the mechanisms of growing specific structures onto colloidal nanoparticles, leading to our recent discoveries. Going beyond individual shapes, additional growth of a shaped domain onto an existing structure would enable arbitrary structural manipulation towards tailored nano-hybrids. In this talk, I will discuss a method to maintain a ligand-deficient “fresh” surface to confine the site of growth in a colloidal system. With the symmetry broken, Ag nanowire and triangular prism are sequentially grown from a colloidal Au seed with well-defined shapes. Our ability in the dynamic control of “fresh” and “old” surfaces allows selective growth at a single site/direction, thus opening doors to sophisticated synthetic designs and broadening the horizon of our search for synergistic effects and functional architectures.