Title：Designer Polymer-Ligated Nanocrystals: from Self-Assembly to Tailored Optical and Catalytic Properties
Speaker：Pro.Zhiqun Lin （National University of Singapore）
Time：June，17，2024.am10:00
Location: 324 lecture hall, South China Institute of soft matter science and Technology (No. 2 building, North Science Park)
Abstract：
In this talk, I will discuss a set of designer polymer-ligated nanocrystals (NCs) with precisely controlled dimensions, compositions and surface chemistry. These NCs include 0D nanoparticles (NPs) and 1D nanorods (NRs), and possess intriguing reversible, stimuli-responsive optical and catalytic properties. The permanent anchoring of stimuli-responsive polymers on the NC surface renders their self-assembly and disassembly on demand using stimuli of different wavelengths or temperature. Specifically, photo-responsive polymer-ligated noble metal NCs (both NPs and NRs) display tunable surface-plasmon resonance absorption and the reversible transformation of NCs between their dispersed and aggregated states, where in particular long-range, liquid crystal-like assemblies are yielded from the self-assembly of photo-responsive polymer-ligated NRs. Moreover, thermo-responsive polymer-ligated noble metal NCs manifest controllable catalytic activity in nonmonotontic or on/off manner over a broad region of temperature. Finally, photo-responsive polymer-ligated all-inorganic perovskite NCs and their use in photo-induced atom transfer polymerization (p-ATRP) of a wide selection of monomers will also be discussed. These stimuli-responsive polymer-ligated NCs and their assemblies are multifunctional. They may render fundamental research in self-assembly and crystallization kinetics of NCs as well as potential applications in optics, optoelectronics, magnetic technologies, sensory materials and devices, catalysis, nanotechnology, and biotechnology.
Brief Biography：
Dr. Zhiqun Lin is currently Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS). He received his BS degree in Materials Chemistry from Xiamen University in 1995, Master degree in Macromolecular Science from Fudan University in 1998, and PhD degree in Polymer Science and Engineering from University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2002. He did his postdoctoral research at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He joined the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Iowa State University as an Assistant Professor in 2004 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2010. He moved to Georgia Institute of Technology in 2011, and become a Professor in 2014. He relocated to National University of Singapore in 2022. His research interests include block copolymers, conjugated polymers, functional nanocrystals, photocatalysis, electrocatalysis, batteries, solar cells, hierarchically structured and assembled materials, and surface and interfacial properties.
He has published more than 400 peer reviewed journal articles (with an h-index of 111), 19 book chapters, and 9 books. Currently, he serves as an Associate Editor for Nano Energy, Chemical Engineering Journal, Nanoscale and Nanoscale Advances.He is a Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (2014), Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) Fellow (2015), American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow (2018), ACS PMSE Fellow and POLY Fellow (2019), ACS Fellow (2022), and MRS Fellow (2023).