Yong-Kyung Hwang

Facile preparation of ultra-large pore mesoporous silica nanoparticles and their application to the encapsulation of large guest molecules.

Pore-enlarged mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) were prepared directly from as-prepared MSNs through a new, simple method using divalent Ca or Mg salts as both efficient silica etching reagents and as ion exchangers in methanolic solution under mild conditions. The resultant MSNs became almost template-free simultaneously during this etching process. The pore-enlarged MSNs, referred to as Ca-MSN or Mg-MSN, maintained their original hexagonal pore symmetry and particle sizes, but several ultra-large mesopores were generated inside and outside the MSNs together with regular mesopores having expanded pore dimension of around 4-5 nm. The average pore diameters for ultra-large pores were 47.5 nm for Ca-MSN and 52.4 nm for Mg-MSN. The generation of ultra-large pores can be regarded as the collapse of several mesopores into an ultra-large pore. Both Ca-MSN and Mg-MSN were good sorbents for positively charged porphyrin molecules. Additionally, these ultra-large pore MSNs exhibited better adsorption ability than calcined MSN for large proteins and antibodies, such as bovine serum albumin (BSA) and immunoglobulin G (IgG).

CO2 selective dynamic two-dimensional ZnII coordination polymer

A CO2 selective dynamic two-dimensional (2D) MOF system, [Zn(glu)(μ-bpe)]·2H2O (·2H2O) (glu = glutarate, bpe = 1,2-bis(4-pyridyl)ethylene), is prepared. Based on variable temperature PXRD patterns, I·2H2O exhibits a structural transformation of the framework upon desolvation. Various gas sorption analyses at low temperatures reveal that solvent-free I selectively adsorbs CO2 over N2, H2, and CH4. Stepped CO2 isotherms for solvent-free I with a large hysteresis between adsorption and desorption branches at 196 K indicate that I is a dynamic framework. Moreover, I·2H2O shows efficient heterogeneous catalytic reactivity for transesterification of various esters. The catalyst can be recycled multiple times without losing its original activity.

Facile preparation of SERS-active nanogap-rich Au nanoleaves

To simply reduce HAuCl(4) using 2-thiophenemethanol in an aqueous solution at room temperature, a novel metallic Au nanostructure with a high SERS activity was obtained. Flat sheet-like Au nanoleaves possessing many nanogap hotspots bound with a large percentage of high-index facets were obtained.

Simple preparation of Pd-NP/polythiophene nanospheres for heterogeneous catalysis.

A very simple preparation was developed for catalytically active Pd-nanoparticles (Pd-NPs) decorating polythiophene conducting polymer nanospheres by the redox reaction between PdCl4(2-) ion and 2-thiophenemethanol (2-TPM) in an aqueous solution at room temperature. 2-TPM polymerized to form polythiophene nanospheres in the presence of PdCl4(2-) ions, reduced to Pd-NPs without the need for extra reducing agents or organic surface capping ligands for sub-20 nm Pd-NPs that uniformly cover polythiophene nanospheres whose dimensions range from 120 nm to 200 nm. The Pd-NP/polythiophene nanospheres were characterized by scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and inductively-coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES). The Pd-NP/polythiophene nanospheres were found to be an excellent catalyst for Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reaction for a wide range of substrates under mild aerobic reaction conditions.