Publications

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Selected 2026 2025 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 Before 2019

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Selected Publications

 

Decoding collective dynamics and complexity in nanoparticle assemblies via graph theory
Jonas Hallstrom, Puquan Pan, Jayson Sia, Sangwok Bae, Dingwen Qian, Chang Qian, Sindy Liu, Lehan
Yao, Thomas M. Truskett*, Delia J. Milliron*, Qian Chen*, Xiaoming Mao*, Paul Bogdan*, Nicholas
Kotov*
accepted, Science (2026)

Patchy nanoparticles by atomic stencilling
Ahyoung Kim, Chansong Kim, Tommy Waltmann, Thi Vo, Eun Mi Kim, Junseok Kim, Yu-Tsun Shao, Aaron Michelson, John R. Crockett, Falon C. Kalutantirige, Eric Yang, Lehan Yao, Chu-Yun Hwang, Yugang Zhang, Yu-Shen Liu, Hyosung An, Zirui Gao,
Jiyeon Kim, Sohini Mandal, David A. Muller, Kristen A. Fichthorn*, Sharon C. Glotzer*, and Qian Chen*
Nature volume 646, pages 592–600 (2025) [LINK][PDF]
- Selected as News & Views @ Nature : "Ion stencils used for synthesis of patchy nanoparticles
- Highlighted @ ILLINOIS NEWS BUREAU: "Atom-scale stencil patterns help nanoparticles take new shapes and learn new tricks"
- Watch the video

Nanoscale phonon dynamics in self-assembled nanoparticle lattices
Chang Qian, Ethan Stanifer, Zhan Ma, Lehan Yao, Binbin Luo, Chang Liu, Jiahui Li, Puquan Pan, Wenxiao Pan*, Xiaoming Mao*, Qian Chen*
Nature Materials (2025) 24, 1616-1625 [LINK][PDF]
- Selected as News & Views @ Nature Materials : "Capturing the dance of nanoparticles in crystals" 
- Highlighted @ ILLINOIS NEWS BUREAU: "Researchers capture nanoparticle movements to forge new materials" 

Locating dislocations in organic crystals
Oliver Lin, Zhichu Tang, and Qian Chen*
Nature Materials 24, 668–670 (2025)  [LINK][PDF]


Visualizing energy transfer between redox-active colloids
Alan Subing Qu, Zihao Ou, Yavuz Savsatli, Lehan Yao, Yu Cao, Hao Yu, Elena C. Montoto, Jingshu Hui, Bo
Li, Julio A. N. T. Soares, Lydia Kisley, Brian P. Bailey, Elizabeth A. Murphy, Junsheng Liu, Jennifer
Huang, Christopher M. Evans, Charles M. Schroeder, Joaquín Rodríguez-López, Jeffrey S. Moore, Qian Chen*, Paul V. Braun*
Sci. Adv. 11, eady7716 (2025). [LINK][PDF]

Nanoscopic Imaging of Biogenic Feedstock-Induced Corrosion in Model Petroleum Infrastructure
Zhiheng Lyu, Samyukta Shrivastav, Jiahui Li, Chang Qian, Lehan Yao, Nachi Shah, Maryam Eslami, Chang Liu, Sheila Ismail, John Shabaker, Eric Doskocil, Daniel V. Krogstad, Jessica A. Krogstad, and Qian Chen*
ACS Nano 19, 28315-28325 (2025) [LINK][PDF]

Nanoscopic Imaging of Self-Propelled Ultrasmall Catalytic Nanomotors

Zhiheng Lyu, Lehan Yao, Zhisheng Wang, Chang Qian, Zuochen Wang, Jiahui Li, Chang Liu, Yufeng Wang, and Qian Chen*
ACS Nano 18, no. 22 (2024): 14231-14243  [LINK][PDF]

Electron videography of a lipid–protein tango

John W. Smith, Lauren N. Carnevale, Aditi Das*, Qian Chen
Science Advances 10, no. 16 (2024): eadk0217  [LINK][PDF]
- Highlighted @ ILLINOIS NEWS BUREAU: "Electron videography captures moving dance between proteins and lipids"

Beyond nothingness in the formation and functional relevance of voids in polymer films
Falon C. Kalutantirige, Jinlong He, Lehan Yao, Stephen Cotty, Shan Zhou, John W. Smith, Emad Tajkhorshid, Charles M. Schroeder, Jeffrey S. Moore, Hyosung An, Xiao Su, Ying Li* and Qian Chen*

Nature Communications 15, no. 1 (2024): 2852  [LINK][PDF]
- Highlighted @ ILLINOIS NEWS BUREAU: ''Nothing is everything: How hidden emptiness can define the usefulness of filtration materials''
- Highlighted @ DOE Office of Science [Homepage][Twitter

4D-STEM Mapping of Nanocrystal Reaction Dynamics and Heterogeneity in a Graphene Liquid Cell

Chang Liu, Oliver Lin, Saran Pidaparthy, Haoyang Ni, Zhiheng Lyu, Jian-Min Zuo and Qian Chen*
Nano Letters 24, no. 13 (2024): 3890-3897  [LINK][PDF]

No ground truth needed: unsupervised sinogram inpainting for nanoparticle electron tomography (UsiNet) to correct missing wedges
Lehan Yao, Zhiheng Lyu, Jiahui Li and Qian Chen*
npj Computational Materials
10, no. 1 (2024): 28 [LINK][PDF]

Unravelling crystal growth of nanoparticles
Binbin Luo, Ziwei Wang, Tine Curk, Garrett Watson, Chang Liu, Ahyoung Kim, Zihao Ou, Erik Luijten* and Qian Chen*
Nature Nanotechnology, 18, pages 589–595  (2023) [LINK] [PDF]
- Highlighted @ ILLINOIS NEWS BUREAU: ''Researchers reveal real-time glimpse into growth habits of nanoparticles''

Electron Microscopy Studies of Soft Nanomaterials
Zhiheng Lyu, Lehan Yao, Wenxiang Chen, Falon C. Kalutantirige, and Qian Chen*
Chemical Reviews, 123 (7), 4051–4145  (2023) [LINK][PDF]

Direct Imaging of Patch-Clasping and Relaxation in Robust and Flexible Nanoparticle Assemblies
Ahyoung Kim, Kireeti Akkunuri, Chang Qian, Lehan Yao, Kai Sun, Zi Chen, Thi Vo*, Qian Chen*
ACS Nano 18, no. 1 (2023): 939-950 [LINK][PDF]

Formation and impact of nanoscopic oriented phase domains in electrochemical crystalline electrodes
Wenxiang Chen, Xun Zhan, Renliang Yuan, Saran Pidaparthy, Adrian Xiao Bin Yong, Hyosung An, Zhichu Tang, Kaijun Yin, Arghya Patra, Heonjae Jeong, Cheng Zhang, Kim Ta, Zachary W. Riedel, Ryan M. Stephens, Daniel P. Shoemaker, Hong Yang, Andrew A. Gewirth, Paul V. Braun, Elif Ertekin, Jian-Min Zuo*, and Qian Chen*
Nature Materials, 22, pages 92–99  (2022) [LINK] [PDF]
- Highlighted @ ILLINOIS NEWS BUREAU: ''Previously unseen processes reveal path to better rechargeable battery performance''
Chiral Assemblies of Pinwheel Superlattices on Substrates
Shan Zhou, Jiahui Li, Jun Lu, Haihua Liu, Ji-Young Kim, Ahyoung Kim, Lehan Yao, Chang Liu, Chang Qian, Zachary D. Hood, Xiaoying Lin, Wenxiang Chen, Thomas E. Gage, Ilke Arslan, Alex Travesset, Kai Sun, Nicholas A. Kotov,* and Qian Chen*
Nature, 612, pages 259–265  (2022) [LINK][PDF]
- Highlighted @ ILLINOIS NEWS BUREAU: ''Organizing nanoparticles into pinwheel shapes offers new twist on engineered materials"
- Interviewed by MRS Bulletin Podcast: ''Gold nanoparticles self-assemble into pinwheel superlattices"
Symmetry-breaking in patch formation on triangular gold nanoparticles by asymmetric polymer grafting
Ahyoung Kim, Thi Vo, Hyosung An, Progna Banerjee, Lehan Yao, Shan Zhou, Chansong Kim, Delia J. Milliron, Sharon C. Glotzer,* and Qian Chen*
Nature Communications, 13, 6774 (2022) [LINK] [PDF]
- Selected to Nature Communications editors' Highlight in materials science and chemistry. Click here for details.
Seeking regularity from irregularity: Unveiling the synthesis‒nanomorphology relationships of heterogeneous nanomaterials using unsupervised machine learning
Lehan Yao, Hyosung An, Shan Zhou, Ahyoung Kim, Erik Luijten, and Qian Chen*
Nanoscale, 14, 16479 (2022) [LINK] [PDF]
Mechanism and Performance Relevance of Nanomorphogenesis in Polyamide Films Revealed by Quantitative 3D Imaging and Machine Learning
Hyosung An, John W. Smith, Bingqiang Ji, Stephen Cotty, Shan Zhou, Lehan Yao, Falon C. Kalutantirige, Wenxiang Chen, Zihao Ou, Xiao Su, Jie Feng, and Qian Chen*
Science Advances, 8 (8), eabk188 (2022) [LINK] [PDF]
- Highlighted @ ILLINOIS NEWS BUREAU: ''Water filtration membranes morph like cells''
Size-Dependent Reaction Mechanism of λ-MnO2 Particles as Cathodes in Aqueous Zinc-Ion Batteries
Zhichu Tang, Wenxiang Chen, Zhiheng Lyu, and Qian Chen*
Energy Material Advances, 2022, 9765710 (2022) [LINK] [PDF]
Beyond Snowflakes: Heterogeneity in Nanomaterials
Qian Chen*
Nano Letter, 22 (1), pp 3-5 (2022) [LINK] [PDF]
Nanoscale Cinematography of Soft Matter System under Liquid-Phase TEM
Zihao Ou, Chang Liu, Lehan Yao, and Qian Chen*
Accounts of Materials Research, 1 (1), pp 41–52 (2020) [LINK] [PDF]
Imaging how thermal capillary waves and anisotropic interfacial stiffness shape nanoparticle supracrystals
Zihao Ou, Lehan Yao, Hyosung An, Bonan Shen and Qian Chen*
Nature Communications, 11, 4555 (2020) [LINK] [PDF]
- Selected to Nature Communications editors' Highlight in materials science and chemistry. Click here for details.
Liquid-phase Electron Microscopy Imaging of Cellular and Biomolecular Systems
John W. Smith and Qian Chen*
Journal of Materials Chemistry B, 8, pp 8490-8506 (2020) [LINK] [PDF]
Machine Learning to Reveal Nanoparticle Dynamics from Liquid-Phase TEM Videos
Lehan Yao, Zihao Ou, Binbin Luo, Cong Xu, and Qian Chen*
ACS Central Science, 6 (8), pp 1421-1430 (2020) [LINK] [PDF]
- Selected as front cover of the issue. Click here for details.
- Highlighted @ ILLINOIS NEWS BUREAU: ''Machine learning peeks into nano-aquariums''
Other news reports: Nanowerk, EurekAlert!, Phys.org.
“Colloid–Atom Duality” in the Assembly Dynamics of Concave Gold Nanoarrows
Chang Liu, Zihao Ou, Fucheng Guo, Binbin Luo, Wenxiang Chen, Limin Qi, and Qian Chen*
Journal of the American Chemical Society, 142 (27), pp 11669-11673 (2020)[LINK] [PDF]
Kinetic pathways of crystallization at the nanoscale
Zihao Ou¶, Ziwei Wang¶, Binbin Luo, Erik Luijten*, and Qian Chen*
Nature Materials, 19, pp 450–455 (2020) [LINK] [PDF]
- Watch the video
- Selected as News & Views @ Nature Materials : ''Seeing crystal formation one particle at a time"
- Highlighted @ ILLINOIS NEWS BUREAU: ''Crystallization clarified, researchers report"
- Highlighted @ MRS Bulletin: ''Crystallization pathway imaged in real time at the nanoscale"
Interfacial crystallization under DNA control
Chang Liu, and Qian Chen*
Nature Materials, 19, pp 704–705 (2020) [LINK] [PDF]
Tip-Patched Nanoprisms from Formation of Ligand Islands
Ahyoung Kim, Shan Zhou, Lehan Yao, Stacey Ni, Binbin Luo, Charles E Sing, and Qian Chen*
Journal of the American Chemical Society, 141 (30), pp 11796-11800 (2019)[LINK] [PDF]
Effects of Particle Size on Mg2+ Ion Intercalation into λ-MnO2 Cathode Materials
Wenxiang Chen, Xun Zhan, Binbin Luo, Zihao Ou, Pei-Chieh Shih, Lehan Yao, Saran Pidaparthy, Arghya Patra, Hyosung An, Paul V. Braun, Ryan M. Stephens, Hong Yang, Jian-Min Zuo* and Qian Chen*
Nano Letters, 19, pp 4712-4720 (2019). [LINK] [PDF]
Hierarchical self-assembly of 3D lattices from polydisperse anisometric colloids
Binbin Luo, Ahyoung Kim, John W. Smith, Zihao Ou, Zixuan Wu, Juyeong Kim and Qian Chen*
Nature Communications, 10, 1815 (2019) [LINK] [PDF]
- Highlighted ''Multistep self-assembly opens door to new reconfigurable materials'' Read the full news article here @ ILLINOIS NEWS BUREAU.
Other news reports: phys.org, NSF science news, and nanotech-now.
- Selected to Nature Communications editors' Highlight in Inorganic, Nanoscale and Physical Chemistry. Click here for details.
Imaging the polymerization of multivalent nanoparticles in solution
Juyeong Kim, Zihao Ou, Matthew R. Jones, Xiaohui Song and Qian Chen*
Nature Communications, 8, 761 (2017). [LINK] [PDF]
- Highlighted "Tiny aquariums put nanoparticle self-assembly on display".
Read the full news article here @ ILLINOIS NEWS BUREAU.
Other news reports: Nanowerk, EurekAlert!, Phys.org, Long Room, Controlled Environments, Science Newsline, Azonano, Technology.org.
Quantifying the self-assembly behavior of anisotropic nanoparticles using liquid-phase transmission electron microscopy
Binbin Luo,* John W. Smith,* Zihao Ou and Qian Chen*
Accounts of Chemical Research 50 (5), pp 1125–1133 (2017). [LINK] [PDF]
- Selected to highlight by @ACSPublications. Click here for details.
Polymerization-like co-assembly of silver nanoplates and patchy spheres
Binbin Luo, John W. Smith, Zixuan Wu, Juyeong Kim, Zihao Ou and Qian Chen*
ACS Nano 11 (8), pp 7626–7633 (2017). [LINK] [PDF]
Polymorphic assembly from beveled gold triangular nanoprisms
Juyeong Kim,* Xiaohui Song,* Fei Ji, Binbin Luo, Nicole F. Ice, Qipeng Liu, Qiao Zhang and Qian Chen*
Nano Letters 17 (5), pp 3270–3275 (2017). [LINK] [PDF]
- Highlighted "Playing with Nanoparticle Legos: Polymorphism in Nanoantenna Arrays".
Read the full news article here.
In Situ Electron Microscopy Imaging and Quantitative Structural Modulation of Nanoparticle Superlattices
Juyeong Kim, Matthew R. Jones, Zihao Ou, Qian Chen*
ACS Nano 10 (11), pp 9801–9808 (2016). [LINK] [PDF]
- Selected to highlight and interview by ACS Nano Podcast.
Listen to us about this work (Episode 112 here).

 

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