Research
Overview
We are fascinated by the fundamental rules governing the spatiotemporal complexities of synthetic materials and biological systems. We aim to answer questions of how to image, quantify, understand, and engineer such complexity from the atomic scale to composite structures, to design new properties. Our interest spans widely, from nanoscience, soft matter, in-situ characterization, biophysics, to energy applications. Particularly, by leveraging innovative methods like liquid-phase TEM, electron tomography, and 4D-STEM, we capture dynamic processes in real-time with unprecedented spatial resolutions, making the invisible visible. This imaging approach is coupled with statistical mechanics, machine learning, and computer simulations, enabling us to explore the frontiers of materials chemistry, materials science, and biology.
Our customized methodologies developed for the acquisition and analysis of high-dimensional electron microscopy data can be found at this GitHub website: https://github.com/chenlabUIUC
Read the following Review or Viewpoint papers of ours.
Beyond Snowflakes: Heterogeneity in Nanomaterials
Qian Chen*
Nano Letter, 22 (1), pp 3-5 (2022) [LINK] [PDF]
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]
Hope to see the most up-to-date progress of our research? Come and join our weekly group meetings. See the group meeting schedule here. Reach out to Nick Menacher (menache1_AT_illinois.edu) for the time and location.
Liquid-phase TEM
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]
Kinetic pathways of crystallization at the nanoscale
Zihao Ou, Ziwei Wang, Binbin Luo, Erik Luijten*, and Qian Chen*
Nat. Mater. 19, pp 450–455 (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*
Nat. Commun. 11, 4555 (2020) [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
Nat. Nanotechnol. 18, pages 589–595 (2023) [LINK] [PDF]
Nanoparticle Synthesis and Assembly
Tip-Patched Nanoprisms from Formation of Ligand Islands
Ahyoung Kim, Shan Zhou, Lehan Yao, Stacey Ni, Binbin Luo, Charles E Sing, and Qian Chen*
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 141 (30), pp 11796-11800 (2019)[LINK] [PDF]
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]
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*
Nat. Commun. 13, 6774 (2022) [LINK] [PDF]
Electron Tomography and Complex Soft Materials
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*
Sci. Adv. 8 (8), eabk188 (2022) [LINK] [PDF]
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 Nat. Commun. 15, no. 1 (2024): 2852 [LINK][PDF]
4D-STEM and Energy Storage Materials
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 Lett. 19, pp 4712-4720 (2019). [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*
Nat. Mater. 22, pages 92–99 (2022) [LINK] [PDF]
Machine Learning and Data Science
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]
Machine Learning to Reveal Nanoparticle Dynamics from Liquid-Phase TEM Videos
Lehan Yao, Zihao Ou, Binbin Luo, Cong Xu, and Qian Chen*
ACS Cent. Sci. 6 (8), pp 1421-1430 (2020) [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 Comput. Mater. 10, no. 1 (2024): 28 [LINK][PDF]
Join Us!
We have openings for undergrads, PhD students, and postdocs with background in TEM, nanoscience or biology. Interested candidates can send your CV to Prof. Chen at qchen20@illinois.edu