Nominator's project description
| The nanometer scale is where chemistry, biology, and materials science converge. In the last few years, optics has played an ever increasing role. In particular, it is possible by combining modern lasers with high-resolution microscopy to detect the minute color changes in nanomaterials while reactions take place. Na Liu has been a pioneer in the field of nanoplasmonics, where small gold nanostructures can be combined to complex three-dimensional structures, which give unprecedented sensitivity to changes in their arrangement or their environment. She was able to detect only a few hundred molecules of hydrogen while they entered a single palladium nanoparticle. Na Liu will take her newly developed methods to unprecedented precision, which should allow for the observation of processes on the single nanoparticle level in a time-resolved fashion. This way, she wants to carry out revolutionary in-vivo and in-situ investigations both in cell biology as well as in catalytic chemistry in local environments. |
