Gold nanoparticles hold promise for their potential to remove air pollutants and deliver drug therapies, among other applications. UNL’s Xiao Cheng Zeng, Ameritas University Professor of Chemistry, and colleagues revealed four atomic arrangements of a gold nanoparticle cluster that appear more stable than previously reported configurations. The team modeled the configurations using computational analysis through the university’s Holland Computing Center, a nontraditional approach to atomic structure analysis. Identifying the nanoparticle’s most stable configurations could allow researchers to improve its use in drug delivery to treat cancers and other diseases and as a catalyst in neutralizing carbon monoxide vehicle emissions. Zeng’s team reported its findings in Science Advances. The Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics collaborated on this project, which was funded by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory and the Nebraska Center for Energy Sciences Research.
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