We have a PhD position available, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, to study new designs of nanoparticle incorporating spin-crossover compounds. Two types of nanoparticle will be pursued. First, are gold nanoparticles or quantum dots (semiconductor nanoparticles) coated with SCO centres. Second, are nanoparticles that are made of the spin-crossover complex itself.In both cases, we will aim to produce functional nanoparticles by exploiting the relationship between the spin-state of the SCO complex, and the presence of an external ligand:[5] This could be used to produce sensor nanoparticles, that change colour or fluorescence by binding an analyte to the spin-crossover metal ion. Alternatively, excitation of the SCO nanoparticles to their high-spin state will induce decoordination of a bound molecular cargo, leading to a new type of molecular (drug) delivery system.
This work will be performed in collaboration with Dr Dejian Zhou in the Leeds School of Chemistry, who is expert in nanoparticles for analytical applications. The project will involve organic and inorganic chemical synthesis, nanoparticle synthesis, and all the physical techniques used to characterise SCO compounds (SQUID magnetometry, DSC/TGA, UV/vis, NMR) and nanoparticles (UV/vis, fluorescence, electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering).
Please contact Prof Malcolm Halcrow (m.a.halcrow@leeds.ac.uk) and Professor Malcolm Halcrow m.a.halcrow@leeds.ac.uk phone: 0113 343 6506 for further details about this opportunity.
This proposal is a funded project that is currently on offer in our group. For more details of our active research projects, please visit our webpage at: http://www.chem.leeds.ac.uk/People/Halcrow.html
Leeds School of Chemistry