(2eh) Re-Engineering Plasmonic Materials and Nucleic Acid across Different Length Scales for Advanced Catalysis and Biosensing

Precise engineering of plasmonic materials across different length scales has long been utilized to boost their efficiency in processes involving energy conversion and transformation. So far, engineering the interplay between thermodynamics and kinetics has brought out a set of successful designs from individual particles to large assemblies. Under some conditions, however, the optimal configuration could be hindered by the traps created by thermodynamics and kinetics. I want to leverage my expertise in both inorganic crystal growth and DNA nanotechnology, to take advantage of their driving force meanwhile overcoming the unwanted traps. The final goal is to achieve customer-designed plasmonic materials with the help of nucleic acid for applications such as catalysis and sensing.

Research Interests

My research interests lie in the combination of engineering of solid inorganic materials with soft nucleic acid for advanced catalysis and sensing applications. The goal will be achieved by forming plasmonic hot spots using DNA as a reconfigurable linker that can actively respond to the change in the surrounding chemical environment. This goal will be separated in to three sub-directions: i) synthesis of efficient plasmonic photothermal materials through precise shape control, surface engineering, and hot spot formation; ii) generation of reconfigurable, addressable, and stable 3D DNA wireframe network that can respond to different chemical environment; and iii) development of protocols for DNA mineralization that are highly controllable in terms of shape and composition.

Teaching Interests

I believe teaching is an essential part of an academic career as it reflects one's ability to conduct effective communication. Working in the field of nanotechnology for both my PhD and postdoc research, I am particularly interested in teaching courses that involve the following two topics: i) introduction to nanomaterials and their structure-property relationship and ii) characterization of nanomaterials plus data analysis to enable students extract as much information as possible from the raw data. Besides introduction of basic principles, I will include examples from our daily lives to some of my own scientific research data, as I believe a combination of those could help students to grasp the concept in a better manner.