Our latest, a perspective on characterizing multiscale dynamics in colloidal nanoparticle gels (Phys Rev E, open access), led by William Brackett (@umich.edu) w Zach Sherman (Univ. of Washington), Felix Lehmkühler (DESY), and @deliamilliron.bsky.social (@umich.edu) journals.aps.org/pre/abstract...

Characterizing emergent multiscale dynamics in colloidal nanoparticle gels

Characterizing the dynamics of nanoparticle gel networks demands a spatiotemporal resolution that no single technique can provide. This Perspective describes the opportunities to address this challeng...

journals.aps.org

It's been a privilege to be among the first researchers on this upgraded beamline, which is ideal for probing dynamics and structural evolution of our nanocrystal gels! Check out the paper in Science Advances here: www.science.org/doi/full/10....

Universal progression of structure and dynamics in colloidal nanocrystal gels during salt-accelerated aging

Salt modulates gelation in colloidal nanocrystal networks, revealing a universal pathway across time and length scales.

science.org

Advanced Photon Source@advancedphoton.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Science Friday! The first paper from the upgraded 8-ID beamline at the APS comes from the University of Texas at Austin. Researchers there uncovered the correlation between salt concentration and the gelation process. Read more below! www.aps.anl.gov/APS-News/202...

Researchers in the Eric Anslyn, Thomas M Truskett and Delia Milliron labs have developed a way to control gelation temperature and network structure in terpyridine-functionalized tin-doped indium oxide nanocrystals. 🧊 https://bit.ly/4rw4n79 #WelchFunded #WelchChair

Colloidal Phase Control in Plasmonic Metal Oxide Nanocrystals via Competitive Metal–Ligand Equilibria

We achieve programmable gelation temperature and network structure in terpyridine-functionalized tin-doped indium oxide nanocrystals. This strategy leverages the tuning of competitive metal–terpyridi...

bit.ly

Disorder is inevitable in colloidal assembly. Sharing our latest in ACS Photonics, led by Tanay Paul and Allison Green in collaboration with @deliamilliron.bsky.social, exploring the role of structural disorder in extreme light-matter coupling of plasmonic nanocrystals pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

Plasmon Polaritons in Disordered Nanoparticle Assemblies

Multilayer assemblies of metal nanoparticles can act as photonic structures, where collective plasmon resonances hybridize with cavity modes to create plasmon-polariton states. For sufficiently strong coupling, plasmon polaritons qualitatively alter the optical properties of light-matter systems, with applications ranging from sensing to solar energy. However, results from experimental studies have raised questions about the role of nanoparticle structural disorder in plasmon-polariton formation and the strength of light-matter coupling in plasmonic assemblies. Understanding how disorder affects optical properties has practical implications since methods for assembling low-defect nanoparticle superlattices are slow and scale poorly. Modeling realistic disorder requires large system sizes, which is challenging using conventional electromagnetic simulations. We employ Brownian dynamics simulations to construct large-scale nanoparticle multilayers with controlled structural order. We investigate their far- and near-field optical response using a superposition T-matrix method with two-dimensional periodic boundary conditions. We find that while structural disorder broadens the polaritonic stop band and the near-field hot-spot distribution, the polariton dispersion and coupling strength remain unaltered. To understand the effects of nanoparticle composition, we consider assemblies with Drude model particles mimicking gold or tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) nanocrystals. Assemblies of ITO nanocrystals, which have lower carrier concentrations, exhibit ultrastrong coupling, in contrast to Au nanoparticle multilayers that display deep strong coupling. Finally, we demonstrate that while computationally efficient mutual polarization method calculations employing the quasistatic approximation modestly overestimate the strength of collective plasmon coupling in these assemblies, they reproduce the polariton dispersion relations determined by electrodynamic simulations.

pubs.acs.org

Abortion bans make pregnancy more dangerous and put young families at risk.

ProPublica@propublica.org · 11mo ago

Earlier this year, ProPublica found that the sepsis rate in second-trimester pregnancy loss hospitalizations increased by more than 50% under Texas’ abortion ban. Here’s how we did our analysis. (Published Feb. 2025)

Huge thank you to my DMG (Delia Milliron Group) students and postdocs for the amazing send off at group meeting today. Go Blue! #ChemSky

The girls are training for our upcoming trip.

“More than 140 employees of the National Science Foundation have signed a letter denouncing what they described as efforts to undermine one of the country’s main science funding agencies.”

Amid Fear of Retaliation, N.S.F. Workers Sign Letter of Dissent

nytimes.com

In discussing the redistricting news with folks outside of Texas, I've realized many don't know how much our democracy is already eroded. The GOP is not worried about losing ground, rather they are aiming to go even FURTHER to undermine representation for democrat-leaning populations.

On my way to the first-ever American Conference on Inorganic Nanoscience (ACIN). Grateful to @brandicossairt.bsky.social and the other organizers for bringing the community together to exchange ideas. I hope our international colleagues can reach the US safely. #chemSky

"I now start my classes by saying science is a human endeavor, with the uniquely human parts making us stronger—if we let them." scim.ag/3Sn9O7G #ScienceWorkingLife

Staff members at the US National Science Foundation (NSF) were told on 30 April to “stop awarding all funding actions until further notice,” according to an email seen by Nature. https://go.nature.com/44Ugf9V

Exclusive: NSF stops awarding new grants and funding existing ones

US science funder also plans to screen grant applications for compliance with ‘agency priorities’.

go.nature.com

This is chilling. The slowing of grant funding to a crawl could, through recission later this year, result in drastically reduced FY25 funding that provides the excuse for drastically reduced science funding going forward. The copy-paste of this strategy to #NSF and others seems likely. 🧪#ChemSky

Don Moynihan@donmoyn.bsky.social · last yr.

New at Can We Still Govern: An anonymous NIH employee maps out the GOP budget gameplan to permanently gut our most important science agency. Impoundment, delay and red tape will create artificial "savings" that become the new benchmark for NIH budgets. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-nih-bu...

Useful info for those mystified (and angered) by the student status terminations hitting international students at campuses across the US.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · last yr.

We already know of over 1,000 student visa terminations. The true number is likely significantly higher. Very few have anything to do with pro-Palestinian advocacy. The overwhelming majority seem to be the result of automated terminations for any contact with law enforcement, no matter how minor.

Photonic integration of plasmonic metal oxide nanocrystal assemblies for ultrastrong coupling and infrared spectral tuning. Collaboration with @utmid-ir.bsky.social and @tmtruskett.bsky.social now out in @pubs.acs.org ACS Nano. @texasche.bsky.social #ChemSky 🧪 pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

How do polymer co-solutes induce attractive interactions between colloidal nanocrystals? Quantitative theory-experiment analysis with @tmtruskett.bsky.social group using small angle X-ray scattering. @texasche.bsky.social @chemistry.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #ChemSky 🧪

I'm watching closely, with a flicker of hope, and with pride as an alum, how Princeton is responding to funding threats and how other universities will, I hope, rally in solidarity with them and with each other. #academicSky

jon ben-menachem@jbenmenachem.com · last yr.

Relatedly: University President Christopher Eisgruber signaled that Princeton would not make concessions to the federal government in an interview with Bloomberg after news broke that the Trump administration had suspended dozens of the University’s research grants.

A robot called WANDA... My group has recently returned to @molecularfoundry.lbl.gov to use WANDA and work with @emorychannano.bsky.social on nanocrystal synthetic development. #ChemSky

Emory Chan@emorychannano.bsky.social · last yr.

I can't believe it's been 15 years since this paper came out! We introduced a nanocrystal-synthesizing robot called WANDA to the world! Now robots & ML are all the rage, but WANDA was a pioneer & is still going strong. @deliamilliron.bsky.social @molecularfoundry.lbl.gov pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

Heading to San Diego for #ACSSpring2025? Check out our three-day symposium on Responsive Colloidal Networks (3/23, 3/26, 3/27) with more than 40 speakers. Full technical program: lnkd.in/gdd-2YKE Thanks to sponsors: @acs.org, @aip.bsky.social, Syngenta, @texasche.bsky.social, and UW ChE ChemSky🧪

"If science is to honour one of its core values — a commitment to the truth wherever it might lead — scientists must stand up when DEI matters" www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Don’t wait out four hard years: speak truth to power

The importance of diversity in science is an unshakeable reality that the scientific community must stand by.

nature.com

Big congrats to my @texasche.bsky.social colleague Wennie Wang on her Maria Goeppert Mayer award from @apsphysics.bsky.social for "research on defective transition metal oxides...[&] a commitment to broadening participation of underrepresented groups in computational materials science" 🧪ChemSky

Grateful for my elected US rep @doggett.house.gov and colleagues from UT Austin who gave voice yesterday to the importance of science. The baseless and destructive dismantling of science and higher ed in the US must stop. We must protect funding and demand disbursement of funds for research!

Rep. Lloyd Doggett@doggett.house.gov · last yr.

This Friday, March 7, at 5 pm on the Texas State Capitol south steps, I am speaking at a public event to Stand Up for Science as part of a national day of action. Essential to engage more and more neighbors in rejecting the science deniers. (1/2)

Special Bluetorial: The benefits of different life experiences The scientific community has folks with a very wide range of life experiences. We have a lot to learn from one another.

a cartoon says hey everybody an old man 's talking while bart simpson looks on

ALT: a cartoon says hey everybody an old man 's talking while bart simpson looks on

media.tenor.com

Received this email from my chair tonight (🧵, 1/6): "The DOE has issued new guidance indicating that, until further notice, there will be delays in any funding actions. Here’s what this means for projects pending or already awarded by DOE: 1. Pending Proposals: Awards will be postponed. ...

Reading about these various definitely-not-DEI-hire nominees, I can't help but wonder if the Republicans have confused "meritocracy" with "mediocrity."

New #ChemRxiv #preprint from my group and collaborators @tmtruskett.bsky.social and @utmid-ir.bsky.social Ultrastrong coupling and IR spectral design by assembling layers of plasmonic ITO nanocrystals in open cavities. Surprising disorder tolerance of polariton modes! chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...

Excited to see this research published! From my @texasche.bsky.social colleague @joaquinresasco.bsky.social and his team about how dissolved ions restructure the electric field at the electrode-electrolyte interface to modulate electrocatalytic reactions. ChemSky 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Organic electrolyte cations promote non-aqueous CO2 reduction by mediating interfacial electric fields - Nature Catalysis

Electrolyte cations have been shown to have a strong impact on reactivity in electrocatalytic CO2 reduction. However, most studies have been performed in an aqueous environment. Here the effect of var...

nature.com

As a department chair, I routinely review student comments submitted to my colleagues and occasionally check the averages on the quantitative ratings. The kinds of gender biases reported in this study and in many others are pervasive.

Katharine Hayhoe@katharinehayhoe.com · 2y ago

Did you see this experiment my colleague Kristina conducted not just at my university but *in my department*? She and the male instructor assumed eachothers’ names for an online course: and the difference in feedback they received was horrifying.

Anyone seen analysis of which LLM uses are primarily driving the huge energy use? Is it students taking shortcuts? Folks writing vapid sounding work emails? Generating memes and infographics? Search results no one asked for? Contractors designing deadly weapons of war?

Started Christmas cooking with blueberry scones. Will make latkes later today for Hanukkah. Happy holidays! #ChemistsWhoCook #ChemSky