Professor Emily Weiss, Northwestern University

Professor Emily Weiss, Northwestern University
Date
Mon May 16th 2016, 4:30pm
Location
Braun Lecture Hall
S.G. Mudd Building
Stanford University

“Photocatalysis of a Proton-coupled, Multi-electron Reaction by a Dispersion of Colloidal Quantum Dots”

About the Seminar:

This talk will describe the use of cadmium sulfide quantum dots (CdS QDs) – single crystals of CdS with diameters of ~3 nm – as visible-light photocatalysts for the reduction of nitrobenzene to aniline through six sequential photoinduced, proton-coupled electron transfers in water. Transient absorption spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) are used to analyze the mechanisms of molecular adsorption to the QD, and to show us how the environment at the surface of the QD promotes chemical transformations. 

About the Speaker:

Emily Weiss is a Professor and the Irving M. Klotz Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Northwestern University. Emily earned her PhD from Northwestern in 2005, advised by Mark Ratner and Michael Wasielewski. Her graduate work focused on magnetic superexchange interactions of radical ion pairs created by electron transfer within organic donor-acceptor systems. Emily did postdoctoral research at Harvard University under George M. Whitesides from 2005-2008 as a Petroleum Research Fund Postdoctoral Energy Fellow, and started her independent career at Northwestern in Fall 2008. Emily’s group studies electronic processes at organic-inorganic interfaces within colloidal semiconductor and metal nanoparticles. The objectives of this research are to understand the mechanisms of conversion of energy from one class to another (light, heat, chemical potential, electrical potential) at interfaces, to understand the behavior of quantum confined systems far from equilibrium, and to design and synthesize nanostructures that are new combinations of organic and inorganic components.