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46953-SE
Dynamics on the Nanoscale, at the ACS National Meeting, March 2007, Chicago, IL
The symposium “Dynamics on the Nanoscale” was organized on behalf of the Physical Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society. The symposium was held during March 25-29, 2007 at the National Meeting of the American chemical Society in Chicago, IL. The funds received from the Petroleum Research Fund were used for travel support of three international speakers from Germany, Italy and Israel to speak and attend the meeting.
Significance and Scope of the Symposium:
Efficient utilization of available petroleum as well as development of alternative sources of energy relies heavily on design of novel types of materials. These materials exhibit new sets of basic chemical and physical properties that determine their applications to harvesting, storage and catalytic processing of energy resources. Many of the desired properties are generated by careful arrangement of several different material components on a nanometer scale. Successful application of such miniaturized designs in the petroleum and energy fields requires detailed understanding of the dynamics of energy, charge and spin in these systems. Multiple experimental and theoretical efforts are devoted for this purpose, focusing on a variety of materials including organic polymers, inorganic semiconductors, molecular chromophores, quantum dots and carbon nanotubes. The energy, charge and spin dynamics in the individual and combined systems are investigated using spectroscopic and imaging techniques as well as theoretical tools originating from many areas of chemistry and chemical physics. The “Dynamics on the Nanoscale” symposium has brought together experimentalists and theoreticians working in this exciting field in order to foster the exchange of information, opinions and ideas.
Accessibility and Impact:
National ACS meetings are one of the largest gathering of chemists from around the world. The symposia that comprise these meeting are extensively advertised in Chemical and Engineering News as well as by direct mailings from the ACS. The ACS meetings are an extremely attractive venue for nanotechnology-related symposia since researchers from the broad spectrum of disciplines encompassed in this overarching area regularly attend these meetings. The “Dynamics on the Nanoscale” symposia not only brought the invited and contributed speakers together to discuss their recent work and future activities, but the symposium also attracted meeting attendees from materials and synthetic chemistry who were interested in nanoscale devices. The impact of our symposium is illustrated by the list of invited speakers, all of whom are internationally-recognized experts in their fields. In addition to the invited speakers, contributed talks were incorporated into the program, and researchers had an opportunity to present their work at the accompanying poster session.
Details of the PRF Support
The international speakers funded by PRF did interact with many of the US scientists, who participated in the symposium. They came from varying areas of interest (reduced-dimensional materials, conducting polymers, and quantum dots) and different experimental /theoretical approaches. The symposium fostered communication between researchers and stimulated new research directions and collaborations.
Consistent with the diversity of scientific backgrounds that comprised the audience for this symposium, PRF funded three well-known international scientists to share their unique perspectives with us on the following topics:
Frank Willig, Fritz-Haber-Institute of the Max-Planck-Society, Berlin, Germany.
“Dynamics of photo-induced heterogeneous electron transfer for solar energy harvesting”
Guglielmo Lanzani, Politecnico di Milano, Italy.
“Novel energy sources based on single wall carbon nanotubes and nanotube assemblies”
Gilad Haran, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel.
“Surface dynamics and charge transfer in photovoltaic and electrochemical applications studied by single-molecule Raman spectroscopy”
