MasterNanosciences, nanotechnologies

Left: composite composed of semiconductor quantum dots attached to gold nanoparticles. Right: photocatalysis mechanism in presence of donor and acceptor of this new photocatalyst.

This internship subject is devoted to the investigation of a new class of photocatalysts based on colloidal semiconductor quantum dots. The originality of the systems developed in this project will be the controlled size connections of quantum dots with metallic nanoparticles (gold or silver nanoparticles). This connection is obtained by surface functionalization of both nanoparticles and reaction coupling to obtained covalent bonding between the semiconductor quantum dots and metallic nanoparticles.
Recent experiments demonstrated that such composite quantum dots-metallic nanoparticles, obtained in water promote the electron/hole separation by electron transfer from the quantum dots to the metallic nanoparticles and improved the efficiency of the photocatalytic systems in water. In this internship we propose to :
i)               Develop the coupling reaction between semiconductor quantum dots and metallic nanoparticles to optimized the connection step.
ii)             Analyze the colloidal state and the spectroscopic properties of such assembly.
iii)            Test the potential of these new type of nano-catalyst for the redox transformation of different electron acceptors and donors.
 This internship, localized at the Neel Institute, in collaboration with the CEA – SyMMES - Grenoble (photocatalytic experiments – V. Maurel) will provide the trainee with some skills in nanoparticles functionalization, in-situ characterization of colloids, photochemistry and photophysics of nanoparticles.