Qiaofeng YAO

Research Fellow since 2014. 09 (Co-operate with Dr. Xie Jianping)   CONTACT   E-mail: cheyaoq@nus.edu.sg   EDUCATION   Ph.D., Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, NUS, 2014 B.Sc., Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, 2010     RESEARCH INTEREST

1)      Synthesis of noble metal nanoclusters

Noble metal nanoclutsers are a family of particles consisting of several to a hundred noble metal atoms and with particle size < 2 nm. Particles in this size regime have attracted increasing research interest in recent years due to their unique optical, electronic, and catalytic properties. In this size regime, noble metal nanoclusters are too small to hold the Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR), but several molecule-like properties, such as discrete electronic energy band and high fluorescence, will emerge instead. Among various attributes of particles in this size regime, size is the most pivotal in determining their chemical and physical properties. Our research interest focuses on develop novel and facile synthetic approaches to generate atomically monodisperse noble metal nanoclusters with tunable sizes, filling the synthetic misslink between isolated molecules to nanoparticles.

Gold nanoclusters with varying sizes

2) Molecular mimic self-assembly of noble metal nanoclusters and nanoparticles

Nature assembles atoms or molecules into crystals. Motivated by this process, researchers are interested in using nanoparticles as artificial atoms to build superlattice structures. Different from natural atoms, these artificial ones could be designedly functionalized in terms of electronic, magnetic or optical properties, which readily open a new dimension in engineering material’s properties. In addition, attributing to the synergistic effect between building blocks, new collective electronic, magnetic or optical properties, which differ from those of individual building block, may emerge in superlattice structures. In order to harvest enhanced optical and catalytic properties, we employ noble metal nanoclusters and/ or nanoparticles as building blocks and try to assemble them into superlattice structures.