Hi! My name’s Giselle, and if there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s that I’m an obsessive planner. I’ve made it through my first four years of university by keeping a very detailed schedule, sticking to it, and planning out my academic timetable as if I’m preparing for battle. I’ve also been incredibly lucky. My professors liked me, and I’ve had the great opportunity to conduct my own research projects. In the Fall 2019 semester, when I asked my supervisor for a reference letter, I did it with Summer 2020 in mind.
This summer, I had planned to travel to Tokyo to work on a clean energy project for four months. In my spare time, I was going to take a weekend away for the Olympics, hop on a train to visit some historical tourist traps, and if I was really lucky, I’d have enough room in my suitcase for all of the Japanese KitKat bars I planned on bringing home as souvenirs. From January to February, everything was going well! I had secured a supervisor in Tokyo and the funding I needed in order to get there, had started applying for a visa, and was blazing through both Duolingo lessons and apartment listings in the nearby areas.
Then, March happened. I doubt you need me to fill in any blanks. Needless to say, despite the best efforts of my supervisor and I, going abroad this summer was out of the question. To be honest, those first few weeks in isolation were very lonely. I had to notify everyone related to my exchange and let them know that I was staying in Canada. Campus became a ghost town overnight. I had to attend classes where professors and students alike had no clue what was going on, or where to go next. I lost all of my motivation and enthusiasm, and even now, with the new school year starting, I doubt I have it all back yet. My Duolingo Owl got lonely and pushy, until it eventually stopped reminding me to practice altogether.
Since I was technically eligible for research funding, I was told that I could still receive it, as long as I found a professor who was willing to take me as their student. I reached out to a different supervisor, whose class I had enjoyed, and whose research seemed interesting to me. Once again, I got incredibly lucky. She was planning on a digital summer for her supervised undergrads, and she brought me into the group immediately. From that point onwards, I was thrown into the world of photochemistry and nanoscience. While the design of new materials was always a subject of interest to me, this summer took it to new heights with the literature review I conducted.
My topic of study was the effect of surface plasmon resonance on host-guest chemistry. To put it simply, gold and silver nanoparticles have the ability to amplify incoming light and act like an antenna for that energy, which we call surface plasmon resonance. This can be used for a lot of things, like generating heat, being used in catalysts, and increasing the sensitivity of things like biosensors. Host-guest chemistry, on the other hand, is the unique kind of interaction that happens between a large molecule with a hole (the host) and a small molecule that can fit inside that pore (the guest). It has found the most use in enzyme catalysis, but has also been used extensively in sensors, where the guest can be immobilized long enough for the sensor to detect it. While both topics have been studied extensively on their own, there isn’t much overlap between the two, and so my job over the summer was to look at what happened when the fields crossed.
As it stands, there’s quite a bit of use for these combined systems. The host-guest interaction can anchor small molecules close to the surface of nanoparticles, and the plasmon resonance can make those molecules do funny things. Selective hosts can be used to increase the rate of catalysis and prevent the formation of unwanted products, trapping guests means they’re easier to sense with nanoparticles, and when the nanoparticles heat up, they can even reverse host-guest interactions, and force the release of guests into the nearby environment.
All of this research even inspired me to think about a new research project I could take on in my final year. In my NANS 502 course, I plan on enhancing the light-emitting properties of the lanthanide elements through surface plasmon resonance, holding them in between two nanoparticles through host-guest chemistry. This gap between nanoparticles also plays a special role in boosting the amplification of incoming light. Putting two nanoparticles in close proximity creates a “hotspot” of sorts in the gap, and the hope is that by securing the lanthanides within that gap, they will be able to emit more light.
While getting around to the actual research was filled with its own highs and lows, I found my summer nonetheless incredibly rewarding, and I don’t regret spending my time this way. I’m incredibly grateful to the community of support I had along the way, and I’m glad that I was able to find a sense of direction and normalcy in such strange, socially-distant times. Who knows? Maybe I’ll even visit my lonely Duolingo owl soon.
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