Welcome to the Wilson Lab, a research effort at the intersection of experimental physical chemistry & nanoscience in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Toronto.

We seek to fundamentally understand the nanomaterials that we make, and use spectroscopies to chart the flow of excitonic energy in the multi-component architectures that we assemble. We apply this knowledge to imagine and build systems and devices with novel photonic and optoelectronic properties—particularly those that can transform the wavelengths of incident light.


Research positions are available for motivated students. Information for graduate students can be found on the Departmental Website, including the Online Application Form. Please contact Prof. Wilson at mark.w.b.wilson@utoronto.ca for further information.


News in brief…

  • 2024-03-01 – The WilsonLab welcomes back alumnus (Dr.) Minhal Hasham for an informal talk and discussions while he’s passing through town. Sounds like he’s finding some interesting results already from his postdoctoral studies with Prof. Paul Alivisatos at the University of Chicago.
  • 2024-01-25 – We bid Rees ‘bon voyage’ as he sets out for ~10 months of research with Prof. Trevor Smith’s research group as part of a joint degree within the Toronto-Melbourne Research Training Group. Very interested to see whether the anomalous trap-state dynamics of quantum dots look the same when the photons are upside-down…
  • 2024-01-16 – Samihat presents a strong PChem seminar on her research efforts: “Employing Carrier Diffusion in Solid-State (Triplet-Fusion) Upconversion.”
  • WilsonLabbers, Year 6. 2022-04-03 – After a long and Omicron-y winter, we seize on a moment with everyone in the lab to take a group photo. Masks help with the indie-band vibe?
  • 2021-11-18 – Our long-rumoured story is out today in Chemistry of Materials Philippe presents our case that the intrinsic surface of PbS nanocrystals made with excess PbCl_2 (i.e. Cademartiri/Weidman-style) is a ~half-layer of a 2D chloride perovskite lattice. This insight not only helps us improve how we handle and functionalize these high-quality nanoparticles, but also reconciles structural oddities and what others (e.g. Mengxia Liu, Ted Sargent, Joseph Luther) have have achieved with dot-in-perovskite devices. Notably, we can observe 2D perovskites forming in situ prior to sulfur injection. Because PbS nanocrystals made from halides show distinct nucleation and growth kinetics from chloride-free syntheses, we speculate that such ‘intermediates’ are relevant for many types of QDs. The intrinsic surface of PbS nanocrystals synthesized from halides is a perovskite-like monolayer.
  • 2021-06-14 – Born from curiosity, and realized through NMR, Philippe’s latest story on the anisotropic morphology adopted by 9-ACA ligands on the surface of PbS nanocrystals. We show that exciton-extracting 9-ACA ligands used for upconversion preferentially bind to the the weaker sites at the facet-edges on the surface of PbS quantum dots. This clustering may prove crucial for promoting excitonic energy transport in hybrid systems for triplet-fusion upconversion. Directed Ligand Exchange on the Surface of PbS Nanocrystals: Implications for Incoherent Photon Conversion
    ACS Applied Nano Materials, 4(6):5655-5664 (2021)

    We show that exciton-extracting 9-ACA ligands used for upconversion preferentially bind to the the weaker sites at the facet-edges on the surface of PbS quantum dots.

    (Also, ‘TMEDA-man’ might be our favourite TOCfig yet!)


Clara