Periodic Reporting for period 2 - LINCHPIN (A platform to LINk between CHemistry and PhysIcs of colloidal Nanomaterials)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2021-07-01 do 2022-12-31
We will achieve the ambitious goal of filling the gap on the reaction time scale, in the vision exceeding the conventional approaches, which includes the novel concept of a platform to study the chemical reactions at elevated temperatures and at the relevant time scales.
We demonstrate that the high energy resolution of HERFD-XANES makes it sensitive to subtle changes in the local chemical environment of the absorbing atom. We reveal that initially cobalt (III) acetylacetonate precursors rapidly reduces to square-planar cobalt (II) acetylacetonate and coordinates to two solvent molecules and only then condensate to cobalt oxide. Thus, we directly access the molecular level of the nanomaterial synthesis. Moreover, we have developed protocols how to estimate and mitigate the beam damage during the colloidal synthesis in non-aqueous environment for micro- and nano-focused X-ray beam.
Additionally, in a collaboration with Prof. Sikora (expert in magnetic materials) from AGH university in Cracow we could show that Magnetic Circular Dichroism in Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering enables assessment of the site distribution and magnetic state of metal ions in the superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles. Here we contributed with our reactor for studies in colloidal solution (Nanoscale 2020).
In parallel we have been working on (a) in situ photon-in photon-out studies of transition metal sulfides and nitrides growth in non-aqueous solution and (b) micro-reactors engineering to address shorter reaction time scales.
The tight coupling between the development of a methodology and its application to study a highly relevant class of nanomaterials, for example 2D-layered structures and metal nitrides, is expected to accelerate both knowledge acquisition and the transfer of engineering-based developments and tools into new scientific applications. The proposed micro-reactors along with experimental spectroscopic protocols and the concurrent fundamental knowledge create a paradigm shift for in situ time resolved experiments with an impact in many other fields from catalysis, and sustainable flow chemistry to biomedical applications.