MechE Seminar Series: David Green

Speaker: David Green

Title: Engineering Nanoparticle Surface Amphiphilicity: Integrated Computational and Mass Spectrometry Studies of Ligand Self-Assembly

Abstract: Nanoparticles (NPs) protected with a ligand monolayer hold promise for a wide variety of applications, from photonics and catalysis to drug delivery and biosensing. Monolayers that include a mixture of ligand types can have multiple chemical functionalities and may also self-assemble into advantageous patterns. We describe in this presentation our investigation of the monolayer structure of PEGylated ultrasmall gold NPs by using configurationally biased Monte Carlo (CBMC) to predict, and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) to probe, the surface morphologies of the mixed monolayers.

About the Speaker: Dr. Green is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering at the University of Virginia. He earned a B.S. degree from Boston University (1991) and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Maryland (1997 and 2001, respectively). His research interests are centered on the synthesis of well-defined nanoparticles, their dispersion into polymer solutions and melts, and their suspension rheology. In particular, his research team collaborates with chemists, physicists, pharmacists, and oncologists to develop design principles for monolayer-protected nanoparticles.