28.10.2011 -
A new system based on an ultrathin graphene membrane for the
examination of materials. Developed by an international team of
researchers from the University of Illinois, Sincrotrone Trieste
S.C.p.A. and the Technical University of Monaco, coordinated by
Andrei Kolmakov, it was featured in the pages of the scientific
journal Nature Nanotechnology and promised to cut down the cost of
many analyses for the chemical characterisation under environmental
conditions.
As a matter of fact, this work intends to solve a key problem
that is currently hindering the study and development of new
nanomaterials, like those used in the synthesis of catalysts or
biocompatible ones for medical applications.
"Their characteristics and performance - explains Matteo Amati,
a physician from Sincrotrone Trieste - are strongly linked to the
processes that take place on the outer layer exposed to the
environment, whether it be a gas, liquid or cellular tissue. To
understand and control these processes it is necessary to obtain
specific surface information recorded under environmental
conditions. However, this may represent a major obstacle as some of
the most effective techniques, based on detecting the electrons
emitted by the material, operate only under very controlled
conditions".
The system designed by the authors of the article basically
solves this issue, in a simple and economic way. The membrane used
is atomically thin and yet strong enough to effectively separate
and isolate the two different environments: the one in which the
sample under observation is submerged and the "shielded" one needed
by the analytical techniques. However, the membrane is transparent
enough to allow the passage of the electrons that transport
chemical information.
Using this simple system, that can be mass produced at very low
costs and also applied to various categories of instruments such as
electronic microscopes, many experimental queries will be solved
much more simply and economically, without having to resort to
costly experimental equipment that, to date, has been the only
possible solution.
"Having this alternative available - concludes Amati - will, in
most cases, make a dramatic difference, especially at a time when
subsidies are at a premium. The difference between doing a certain
research or not, also in fields that have enormous application
usefulness, since nanomaterials are more and more used in fields
such as medicine, environment and electronics.
The experimental work carried out by the Sincrotrone Trieste was
partly supported by subsidies granted by the Friuli Venezia Giulia
Region as part of the AMBIOSEN project dedicated to the development
of chemical sensors for environmental and biological diagnosis,
based on nanotechnologies.
Laura Bibi Palatini
Press Office - Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A.
bibi.palatini@elettra.trieste.it
(+39) 0403758493
(+39) 335473809