Powerful fluorescence imaging and spectroscopic techniques routinely employed in the biological sector have recently emerged as tools for the investigation of organic reactions and can provide fundamental mechanistic insights on chemical systems. Techniques such as Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence Microscopy, Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy and even super-resolution microscopy can provide a wealth of information often masked by traditional ensemble-averaged measurements and are becoming valuable additions to the toolset available to organic, inorganic and physical chemists. In materials science, linking performance observed at the bench scale to reaction dynamics at the single molecule level has added an entirely new dimension to the design and evaluation of catalytic nanomaterials. This discussion will focus on the use of single molecule fluorescence techniques to investigate the catalytic performance of photochemically prepared samarium oxide nanoparticles (Sm2O3NP) possessing Brønsted acid and redox properties. Two model systems will be described: 1) Sm2O3NP-catalyzed formation of coumarin 153 via the Pechmann trans-esterification and condensation process and 2) catalytic oxidation and activation of a primary alcohol mediated by Sm2O3NP.

Probing samarium oxide nanoparticle catalysis at the single molecule level with fluorescence microscopy

251st National Meeting (2016)

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