Advances in Microscope Technology to Boost Science

Researchers at the Arizona State University (ASU) are ecstatic – soon, their laboratories will be able to boast one of the few state-of-the-art electron microscopes in the world. These devices play a fundamental part in understanding the interactions that occur between materials at a nano-scale, and the conclusions that are drawn following studying various targets with them are used to determine if a certain theory or class of materials is valid or not.

The Division of Materials Research, a part of the National Science Foundation (NSF), has decided to fund the project with roughly $5 million, asking the team behind it to develop an aberration-free device that will be capable of offering the most complex and clear images at an atomic level.

The NSF doesn't usually assist universities in purchasing such high-grade instruments, but, since it has done so now, ASU will become one of the most advanced microscope research facilities in the United States.

“This is a technologically revolutionary instrument that is opening up whole new areas of materials and biological research. It is an invaluable tool for the future success of nanoscience and nanotechnology, which are fields critical to both national security and economic development,” ASU School of Materials professor Nathan Newman, who is also the director of the university's LeRoy Eyring Center for Solid State Science, shares.

“Having this microscope at ASU will increase the amount and raise the quality of the research that is done here by ASU researchers and others from throughout the country. I would expect that an additional $30 million in grants will be secured in the next seven years as a result of the acquisition of the microscope,” the scientist explains.

“We will be able to probe the bonding of single atoms and examine chemical reactions in real-time at the atomic level. This is the level at which the workings of nanotechnology happen. It will enhance existing research and teaching at ASU, and lead to exciting new research on catalyst nanoparticles for energy production, batteries for hybrid vehicles, materials for direct-conversion solar cells and interfaces in multiphase nanocomposites,” the principal investigator for the electron microscope project, Ray Carpenter, who is also a professor at the School of Materials, adds.