The Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN) presents a seminar by Professor Catherine Murphy, from the Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, United States
Abstract
Gold
nanocrystals
of
controlled
size
and
shape
have
tunable
optical
properties
that
enable
new
science.
Upon
illumination
with
resonant
light,
these
gold
nanocrystals
generate
plasmons
(coherent
oscillations
of
conduction
band
electrons).
These
plasmons,
in
turn,
can
produce
local
electric
fields
and
heat.
In
this
talk
I
will
discuss
four
short
stories
about
gold
nanocrystals
and
their
plasmons.
In
“Physics”
we
will
discuss
how
molecules
experience
the
local
electric
field
provided
by
illuminated
plasmonic
nanorods.
In
“Chemistry”
we
will
discuss
how
the
surface
chemistry
of
the
nanocrystals
can
be
tuned
with
both
hard
and
soft
shells,
and
how
the
particular
chemistry
at
the
surface
dictates
molecular
function.
In
“Biology”
I
will
discuss
how
these
nanocrystals
interact
with
biological
fluids
and
living
cells;
and
in
“Ecology”
I
will
discuss
how
these
nanoparticles
are
distributed
in
an
estuarine
ecosystem
as
a
function
of
surface
chemistry.
Professor Murphy received two B.S. degrees, one in chemistry and one in biochemistry, from the University of Illinois in 1986. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1990. From 1990-1993, she was first an NSF and then an NIH postdoctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology. From 1993-2009 Professor Murphy was a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of South Carolina. In August 2009 she joined the faculty of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois.