Title: How Nanoscience Changes the Way Chemists Think
Speaker: Phillip Geissler
Topic: The chemical composition of many nanocrystals can be modified simply by bathing them in a solution that is rich in the incoming component. This exchange within a crystalline lattice would be impossibly slow in a macroscopic solid, and it involves surprising collective rearrangements that are impossible in a reaction involving just a few molecules. Prof. Geissler will describe how theory and computer simulations are helping to clarify the uniquely nanoscale mechanisms of ion exchange in semiconductor nanocrystals, whose control would greatly expand the scope of nanoparticle synthesis.