Single-molecule catalysis: from nanoparticles to polymers

This presentation will have two parts on using single-molecule approaches to study foundamental catalytic processes. In part 1, I will describe our efforts in developing and applying single-molecule super-resolution imaging approaches to study catalysis on nano/micro-scale catalyst particles, focusing on our recent work of imaging nonfluorescent surface processes. In part 2, I will describe our work in developing methods to study the polymerization catalysis of forming single polymer chains down to single-monomer resolution, leading to microscopic sequencing of single copolymer chains.

Speaker: Peng Chen, Cornell University