Atomically Precise Nanoclusters

The primary goal of nanotechnology is to achieve nanoscale materials and devices with atomic precision. Toward this goal, breakthroughs have recently been made in the solution-phase synthesis and applications of atomically precise nanoclusters. This book presents the exciting progress in this new research field. The chapters are contributed by leading experts of the field and cover the synthetic methods, atomic structures, electronic and optical properties, and catalytic applications of noble metal nanoclusters. Such new nanocluster materials offer exciting opportunities for chemists and physicists to understand the fundamental science of nanoclusters, especially the atomic-level structure–property correlation and design of new materials, as well as for developing a range of applications including catalysis, biomedicine, sensing, imaging, optics, and energy conversion. The book will be of interest to readers and researchers in nanotechnology, nanochemistry, catalysis, and computational chemistry, as well as practitioners in industry R&D for new materials. It is written to be accessible to undergraduate and graduate students and, therefore, is an excellent teaching material.

Yan Zhu is a full professor at Nanjing University. She earned her Ph.D. from Nanjing University (China, 2007). After she performed postdoctoral research at Keio University (Japan) and Carnegie Mellon University (USA), she joined the chemistry faculty of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (2012). In 2017, she moved to Nanjing University, where she is a full professor of physical chemistry. Her current research interest is the design of atomically precise nanoclusters for catalytic applications.

Rongchao Jin is a professor of Chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University. He received his B.S. in chemical physics from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC, Hefei, China) in 1995; his M.S. in physical chemistry/catalysis in 1998 from Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences; and his Ph.D. in chemistry from Northwestern University (Evanston, IL, USA) in 2003. He then performed postdoctoral research at the University of Chicago. He joined the chemistry faculty of Carnegie Mellon University in 2006 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2012 and Full Professor in 2015. His current research interests include atomically precise nanoparticles, optics of nanoparticles, and catalysis.