Evan Luo stands in front of Mellon Institute and smiles at the camera.

Chemistry's Lianshun (Evan) Luo Receives IPMI Student Award

By Amy Pavlak Laird Email Amy Pavlak Laird

Heidi Opdyke

Chemistry Ph.D. student Lianshun (Evan) Luo has received a 2025 Student Award from the International Precious Metals Institute (IPMI) for his work creating gold quantum rods with unusual yet promising optical properties. He will receive the $5,000 award at the IPMI's annual conference in June.

Luo's research focuses on creating atomically precise nanoclusters of only dozens of gold atoms. These nanosized particles have unique electrical, magnetic and optical properties, depending on their size, structure and composition.

“I’ve always been fascinated by how we can precisely control matter at the atomic scale to create entirely new properties. Working with gold nanoclusters lets me explore that frontier,” Luo said. “It’s like building with LEGO blocks but at the atomic level. You piece together atoms in just the right way, and suddenly you’ve created something with remarkable optical or electronic behavior that doesn’t exist in nature.”

Since joining Chemistry Professor Rongchao Jin's group in 2021, Luo has been working on synthesizing gold nanoclusters with a specific optical property — emitting light in the near-infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Developing molecules that emit in the near-infrared, specifically wavelengths between 1,000-1,700 nanometers (nm), offers advantages in a variety of medical applications, including deep, non-invasive imaging and image-guided cancer surgery. Unlike visible light, which has wavelengths between 400-700 nm, near-infrared wavelengths can penetrate tissues more deeply, dramatically improving the image resolution.

In the lab, Luo has been creating a series of rod-shaped gold nanoclusters — a shape that intensifies near-infrared absorption at higher wavelengths. But coaxing the nanoclusters to grow in a rod shape was a challenge.

“Evan came up with an ingenious new synthesis idea to create non-spherical nanoclusters that are optically active in the near-infrared range,” Jin said. “This new synthesis is completely from Evan’s own idea; I had no clue how to overcome the challenges I presented to Evan when I first talked to him about the project in 2021. Evan’s creativity really impresses me!”

Using his new method, Luo synthesized a series of rod-shaped gold nanoclusters that strongly absorb and emit in the near-infrared, making them 100 times stronger than commercially available organic dyes. The work, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, highlights the quantum rods' promise for use in biomedical imaging applications.

Another promising field for the gold quantum rods is in boosting solar cells’ performance. When a silicon-based cell converts solar energy to electricity, roughly 50% of incident solar energy is wasted because a large portion at the higher wavelengths is not being utilized. The new quantum rods' ability to strongly absorb 1,000-2,000 nm wavelengths and potentially up-convert into the reaches of the silicon cells could make them ideal for use in solar cells to boost their efficiency.

Since joining the Jin lab, Luo has published six first-author papers in top journals such as PNAS and the Journal of the American Chemical Society, as well as three co-authored papers for his contributions to collaborative work. He has presented his research at the American Chemical Society national conference, Gordon Research Conference on Atomically Precise Nanochemistry, and a Department of Energy workshop on CO2 technologies.

Luo plans to complete his Ph.D. in 2025, and after graduation, he hopes to continue his research on using quantum rods in biological applications as a postdoctoral fellow. Luo earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in material science and engineering from Zhejiang Sci-Tech University and Shanghai Tech University, respectively.

IPMI is the international trade association for the precious metals industry representing producers, refiners, fabricators, recyclers, users, financial institutions, merchants, scientists, private and public sector groups and the general precious metals community. IPMI's Educational and Scientific Foundation recognizes excellence and achievement through student and institutional awards.