Nanoscale Energy Research

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News

September 5, 2024

Discovery of Isomerization Intermediates published in ACS Nano

Reilly and Tom have uncovered isomerization intermediates in CdS magic sized clusters. A team of researchers at Cornell University has made a significant nanoscience breakthrough, uncovering intermediate states in the isomerization of cadmium sulfide (CdS) magic-size clusters (MSCs). This discovery challenges our understanding of how atomic structures can change, offering new insights into the fundamental chemistry and physics of nanomaterials. What is Isomerization and Why Does It Matter? Isomerization is a process where a molecule is transformed into another molecule with the same chemical formula but a different atomic arrangement. This phenomenon is well-known in organic chemistry, where molecules primarily composed of carbon atoms undergo rearrangements that play a crucial role in various biological and chemical processes. However, in inorganic materials (substances that generally do not contain carbon-hydrogen bonds, such as the CdS MSCs studied by the Cornell team) this phenomena is a much newer area of exploration. Only until 5 years ago was it uncovered that that inorganic materials are able to isomerize like organics. Understanding how these transformations occur is essential for advancing our knowledge of material science and could have implications for developing new technologies in electronics, optics, and energy. Previously, scientists found that the CdS MSCs could transform between two distinct atomic states, the alpha and beta states. The transition was too fast to observe the pathway between the states, leaving the researchers believing that the transformation was a coherent hop between the beginning and ending state. But the Robinson group research team, lead by Cornell PhD candidate Reilly Lynch, had an idea about how to uncover any transition states. The team used a mild chemical to initiate the transformation, allowing them at a pace that was orders of magnitude slower than the previous transformation. With this small modificatoin they discovered there were a series of three stable intermediates states between the alpha and beta end structures. Already this was an interesting find, but what makes this discovery particularly intriguing is that these intermediates, while having nearly identical atomic structures to the final state, exhibit significant differences in electronic properties—specifically, their bandgap (the color they appear) can differ by as much as 583 meV from the final state. To put this number in perspective, the thermal energy of room temperature is 20x smaller than this value. Why This Matters The bandgap of a material determines its electronic and optical properties, such as how it absorbs light or conducts electricity. Finding an intermediate state with a large bandgap difference but nearly identical atomic structure to its final state suggests that there is a decoupling of the atomic structure and electronic properties in these nanoclusters. This challenges conventional understanding and suggests that there may be more to discover about how atomic-scale interactions can influence material properties in unexpected ways. Looking Ahead This groundbreaking work not only solves a longstanding puzzle in the study of nanoclusters but also opens up new avenues for research into the underlying mechanisms of isomerization. The findings could lead to advances in the design of materials with tailored electronic and optical properties, potentially impacting fields as diverse as renewable energy, nanotechnology, and quantum computing. For more information about this research, please contact Richard D. Robinson at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University. Discovery of Isomerization Intermediates in CdS Magic-Size Clusters,” Reilly P. Lynch, Thomas J. Ugras, Richard D. Robinson, ACS Nano (2024) https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.4c08319

July 4, 2024

Tom wins the poster prize at GRC!

Thomas Ugras wins the poster prize at the Nanocrystals GRC, Les Diablerets, Switzerland. Congratulations Tom!

June 18, 2024

High entropy synthesis paper published in JACS!

Jonathan Rowell and members of the Robinson Lab have pioneered a groundbreaking "backdoor" technique for creating high-entropy materials at significantly reduced temperatures. Traditionally, synthesizing these materials requires high temperatures, which can limit their practical applications due to energy costs and material degradation. The new method, developed by the Robinson Lab, circumvents these challenges by enabling the formation of high-entropy compounds through a novel, energy-efficient process. This advancement holds promise for revolutionizing materials science, paving the way for new applications in various industries, from aerospace to electronics. The report is published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society as a communication. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.4c04744

June 5, 2024

Thomas Ugras wins the 2024 CHESS Poster Prize!

Thomas Ugras wins the 2024 Poster Prize for Best Scientific Poster at the 2024 CHESS User Meeting, held at CHESS in June. His poster highlighted work performed at the CHESS synchrotron to elucidate the underpinnings of chirality in his Magic Size Nanocluster assemblies. Tom’s PhD work is on investigating how achiral building blocks of inorganic nanoclusters, can be processed to form chiroptic films. This makes three poster prizes that Thomas has won!

February 15, 2024

Talisi has been awarded a CABES Fellowship!

Talisi Meyer has been awarded a CABES Graduate Fellowship for Spring Semester 2024. CABES (The Center for Alkaline-based Energy Solutions) is a collaborative, university and national lab research center supported by the US DOE, Office of Science as one of the Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs). Congratulations Talisi!

December 19, 2023

Frank graduates!

About Us

https://therobinsongroup.org/about-us/galley/

November 19, 2023

Joshua Rivera Rodriguez (PREM, summer 2023) wins best poster award at ACS

Joshua Rodriguez won the best poster award out of 75 posters at the “46th Senior Technical Meeting” for ACS Puerto Rico Section for a presentation on the copper sulfide electrocatalysis project. Poster title, “Exploring Two-Dimensional Copper-Zinc Heterostructures as Electrocatalysts for Decarbonization Technology”. Joshua Rivera Rodriguez, of the University of Puerto Rico - Mayagüez Campus, PREM Center for Interfacial Electrochemistry of Energy Materials (CIE²M) https://prem-dmr.org/centers/29, Nov. 2023, Puerto Rico

July 19, 2023

Yafu graduates

June 18, 2023

Tom and Frank published in Chirality: “Can we still measure circular dichroism with CD spectrometers?”

Lab-based CD spectrometers operate with the belief that a 2nd order Taylor expansion is good enough to model optically active materials, but what happens when you encounter an anistropic structure, as is more often the case. Spoiler: artifacts appear in the spectrum that can’t be removed. https://doi.org/10.1002/chir.23597

June 6, 2023

Tom wins the CHESS award: Best Technical Poster Prize

Thomas Ugras won the “Best Technical Poster Prize” awarded to recognize the “outstanding presentation of research based on the development of new instrumentation, new methods, and/or techniques at CHESS”. June 6, 2023

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