量子信息交叉中心学术报告032
Title: Imaging Reactions in Action
Speaker: Associate Professor Zhenrong Zhang，Baylor University (张臻蓉副教授，贝勒大学）
Place: RM 101，Bulg. 2，Xixi Campus (西溪校区西二楼101室)
Date and time: 14:00，December 12th，2019 （12月12日下午14:00）
Abstract：Imaging reactions in action at the heterogenous interface is the key to understand reactions between molecules and surfaces. In this talk, I will showcase how reactive sites affect the chemical activity of TiO2 and MoS2 using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and tip-enhanced Raman scattering (TERS). Employing carboxylic acid, acetone, and formaldehyde as probing molecules, we studied adsorption, dissociation, diffusion, and coupling reaction — taking place in heterogeneous catalytic reactions on TiO2 surfaces using STM. The unique methodology enables us to achieve the atomic-level imaging of these key elemental reaction steps. MoS2 has a variety of applications including photovoltaics, energy storage, optoelectronics, and catalysis. Chemical treatment and doping have been used to improve its light-matter interactions for optoelectronic devices. Here we compared the difference in the interaction of sub-monolayer copper phythalocyanine (CuPc) molecules with MoS2 and Au using TERS. We investigated the limits of Raman signal enhancement on MoS2. We studied the effect of laser irradiation on the optical properties of MoS2 in ambient conditions.
张臻蓉副教授简介：ZHENRONG ZHANG is an Associate Professor of Physics at Baylor University. She received her B.S. and M.S. in physics from Lanzhou University, China, and her Ph.D. in physics from Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Science. After a postdoctoral position with Prof. Erminald Bertel in University of Innsbruck, Austria (2002-2004), she moved to a joint postdoctoral position in Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) with Zdenek Dohnalek and University of Texas at Austin with J. Mike White (2004-2009). During her time at PNNL, she developed an in situ method to image surface catalytic reactions on the oxide surfaces at the atomic level using ultra-high-vacuum scanning tunneling microscopy. She was awarded M. T. Thomas Award for Outstanding Postdoctoral Achievement. She joined Baylor University in 2010 as an assistant professor of physics and was promoted to associate professor in 2016. Research in Zhang’s group is to develop imaging techniques for investigation of the structure-functionality of the materials in optoelectronics, plasmonics, and catalysis applications. She is the author of over 50 publications and holds one US patent. Her research is supported by National Science Foundation.