Paige Hall PhD

As a high school chemistry student, I performed an experiment I will never forget. Inside each tiny well of a 96-well plate, we mixed two aqueous solutions together and observed the reaction. Many of the mixtures produced brilliantly-colored solids in joy-sparking hues: golden yellow, neon pink, cobalt blue, turquoise, and chalky white. With 96 reactions total, arranged neatly along the square gridlines of the well plate, the result was a work of art.

That first exposure to color spawned my interest in chemistry, and my fascination with color continues to be a driving force in my research. My current projects focus on the development and application of nanoparticles made from plasmonic materials, particularly silver and gold. When these elements are structured at the nanoscale, they exhibit selective interactions with visible-wavelength light, giving rise to absorption and scattering phenomena that our eyes observe as color. By changing the size, shape, or composition of the nanostructure – features that are easily controlled using basic wet chemistry – we can tune the color of the particle across the entire spectrum of visible hues.

Although these colors make them beautiful to work with, the real utility of plasmonic nanomaterials stems from the ways their electronic and optical properties can be harnessed for a variety of applications. Plasmonic materials are widely used in chemical and biological sensing applications and can serve as dynamic color filters with potential applications in lighting and displays.

Moreover, recent work has shown that plasmonic materials can improve green energy technologies, such as thermoelectrics, which convert waste heat to usable energy. My group is probing the ways that metallic nanoparticles can enhance the performance of thermoelectric films by carefully controlling the properties of gold nanoparticles incorporated into conductive organic polymers.

In addition, we use novel synthetic techniques to tune the optical properties of nanoparticles past the visible wavelength range and into the near-IR. By creating nanoparticles with absorption properties that lie within the therapeutic window, where light exhibits the maximum depth of penetration in biological tissue, we hope to design new agents for photothermal therapies. These experimental efforts are complemented by computational finite difference time domain calculations, allowing us to both predict and manufacture nanoparticles with beneficial medical applications.

Education

• Ph.D. in Chemistry, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
• B.S. in Biochemistry, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN

Selected Publications

• W. P. Hall and Kevin Cantrell, Exploring the Connection Between Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide and Ocean Acidification through a Python Coding Exercise. J. Chem. Educ. 2024, 101, 3922 – 3927.
• W. P. Hall and Lily Gunning, Physical Chemistry in Context: Using Quantum Mechanics to Understand the Greenhouse Effect. J. Chem. Educ. 2023, 100, 1333 – 1342.
• I. Reinhard, K. Miller, G. Diepenheim, K. Cantrell, and W.P. Hall. Nanoparticle Design Rules for Colorimetric Plasmonic Sensors. ACS Applied Nano Materials 2020, 3, 4342 – 4350.
• J. Ruemmele, W.P. Hall, L. Ruvuna, R.P. Van Duyne: A Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance Imaging Instrument for Multiplexed Biosensing. Analytical Chemistry 2013, 85, 4560-4566.
• W. P. Hall; J. Modica; Y. Lin; J.N. Anker; M. Mrksich; R.P. Van Duyne: A Conformation- and Ion-Sensitive Plasmonic Biosensor. Nano Letters 2011, 11, 1098-1105.
• J. N. Anker, W. P. Hall, O. Lyandres, N. C. Shah, J. Zhao, R. P. Van Duyne: Biosensing with Plasmonic Nanosensors. Nature Materials 2008, 7, 442-453.