UConn Opening a New Center for In Situ & Operando TEM in Collaboration With DENSsolutions

UConn Opening a New Center for In Situ & Operando TEM in Collaboration With DENSsolutions

by | May 21, 2019 | Catalyst research, Climate, Corrosion

UConn Tech Park (Magda Biernat)

At DENSsolutions, we believe that together we can achieve more. So, we are proud to announce our partnership with the University of Connecticut (UConn).

A new center commemorating this exciting collaboration will be opened. The UConn DENSsolutions Center for IN-siTu/Operando Electron Microscopy (InToEM) will be the home of scientists and engineers with complementary expertise working at the frontier of understanding materials dynamics. The InToEM center is situated in UConn Tech Park, the University of Connecticut’s premier center for cutting-edge research, industry collaboration, and innovation.

Our contribution

The DENSsolutions Climate MEMS-based Nano-Reactor TEM system will be at the heart of this research center. The system has a unique capacity to probe high-temperature gas-solid reactions with high spatial resolution under ambient pressure, in gaseous environment controlled by sophisticated dynamic gas mixing. Dynamic changes in local site-specific structural information of nanomaterials can be monitored in real-time under realistic reaction conditions.

Climate In Situ Gas & heating system with featured MEMS-based Nano-Reactor (gas supply not on the picture)
Climate In Situ Gas & heating system (gas supply not on the picture)
MEMS-based Nano-Reactor

New Opportunities

As the demands of research need more complex solutions, we want to move towards Operando environmental electron microscopy. Our solutions will allow concurrent mass-spectrometry, calorimetry and chemical analysis during reactions.
These new capabilities will provide unprecedented insight into the correlation between materials dynamics and temporal performance at the fundamental atomic-scale, and will open up a world of research opportunities in heterogeneous catalysis, fuel cells, corrosion, and materials growth and transformation.

Dr. Zhu with the Climate system (UConn Photo)
Yuanyuan Zhu, the Director of the InToEM, Assistant Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Institute of Materials Science, UConn commented:
“Being able to study the behavior of materials in their native environment has been microscopist’s dream since the birth of TEM. I’m very excited about the InToEM center, which will provide an optimal scientific “sandbox” to explore microscopy as it should be.”
Ben Bormans, CEO of DENSsolutions, is very pleased to have UConn and the InToEM center led by Dr. Zhu, as a customer:
“DENSsolutions’ vision is that in situ and operando TEM can contribute to solving societal challenges like climate change and green/clean technologies.
These new techniques connect microscopy more meaningfully with chemistry, materials research and nanotechnology. Therefore, here at DENSsolutions, we all are very, very excited about being a partner in the InToEM center.
Here, a lot of good things come together: the Materials Science and Engineering Department and Institute of Materials Science of UConn with world-class performance in Materials research, the fantastic facilities of the Business Innovation Center, and the focus and passion of the scientists of INToEM.”

Download the Climate Brochure

For more information on features and specifications.

<!--[if lte IE 8]><!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --><script charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript" src="//js.hsforms.net/forms/v2-legacy.js"></script><!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --><![endif]--><!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --><script charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript" src="//js.hsforms.net/forms/v2.js"></script><!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --><script><!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --> hbspt.forms.create({<!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --> portalId: "469089",<!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --> formId: "0d52a62f-f229-49fb-a2d3-9b8c66a5a526", submitButtonClass: 'et_pb_button'<!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] -->});<!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --></script>
UConn Tech Park (Magda Biernat)

At DENSsolutions, we believe that together we can achieve more. So, we are proud to announce our partnership with the University of Connecticut (UConn).

A new center commemorating this exciting collaboration will be opened. The UConn DENSsolutions Center for IN-siTu/Operando Electron Microscopy (InToEM) will be the home of scientists and engineers with complementary expertise working at the frontier of understanding materials dynamics. The InToEM center is situated in UConn Tech Park, the University of Connecticut’s premier center for cutting-edge research, industry collaboration, and innovation.

Our contribution

The DENSsolutions Climate MEMS-based Nano-Reactor TEM system will be at the heart of this research center. The system has a unique capacity to probe high-temperature gas-solid reactions with high spatial resolution under ambient pressure, in gaseous environment controlled by sophisticated dynamic gas mixing. Dynamic changes in local site-specific structural information of nanomaterials can be monitored in real-time under realistic reaction conditions.

Climate In Situ Gas & heating system with featured MEMS-based Nano-Reactor (gas supply not on the picture)
Climate In Situ Gas & heating system (gas supply not on the picture)
MEMS-based Nano-Reactor

New Opportunities

As the demands of research need more complex solutions, we want to move towards Operando environmental electron microscopy. Our solutions will allow concurrent mass-spectrometry, calorimetry and chemical analysis during reactions.
These new capabilities will provide unprecedented insight into the correlation between materials dynamics and temporal performance at the fundamental atomic-scale, and will open up a world of research opportunities in heterogeneous catalysis, fuel cells, corrosion, and materials growth and transformation.

Dr. Zhu with the Climate system (UConn Photo)
Yuanyuan Zhu, the Director of the InToEM, Assistant Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Institute of Materials Science, UConn commented:
“Being able to study the behavior of materials in their native environment has been microscopist’s dream since the birth of TEM. I’m very excited about the InToEM center, which will provide an optimal scientific “sandbox” to explore microscopy as it should be.”
Ben Bormans, CEO of DENSsolutions, is very pleased to have UConn and the InToEM center led by Dr. Zhu, as a customer:
“DENSsolutions’ Vision is that in situ and operando TEM can contribute to solving societal challenges like climate change and green/clean technologies.
These new techniques connect microscopy more meaningfully with chemistry, materials research and nanotechnology. Therefore, here at DENSsolutions, we all are very, very excited about being a partner in the InToEM center.
Here, a lot of good things come together: the Materials Science and Engineering Department and Institute of Materials Science of UConn with world-class performance in Materials research, the fantastic facilities of the Business Innovation Center, and the focus and passion of the scientists of INToEM.”

Download the Climate Brochure

For more information on features and specifications.

<!--[if lte IE 8]><!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --><script charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript" src="//js.hsforms.net/forms/v2-legacy.js"></script><!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --><![endif]--><!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --><script charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript" src="//js.hsforms.net/forms/v2.js"></script><!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --><script><!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --> hbspt.forms.create({<!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --> portalId: "469089",<!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --> formId: "0d52a62f-f229-49fb-a2d3-9b8c66a5a526", submitButtonClass: 'et_pb_button'<!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] -->});<!-- [et_pb_line_break_holder] --></script>

Membranes made from Nano-droplets have potential in Medical Research

Membranes made from Nano-droplets have potential in Medical Research

by | Apr 24, 2019 | Chemistry, LPTEM, Ocean

Membranes formed in-lab from nano-droplets could have future use in medicines

For the first time, researchers from the Laboratory of Materials and Interface Chemistry, Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE), with a significant contribution of assistant professor Joe Patterson, have made a comprehensive video of liquid membrane formation using a transmission electron microscope (TEM). They used soap-like nanodroplets submerged in water to create the membrane. Their results are published in Nature, Chemistry and have been highlighted in the Nature, Chemistry News & Views article ‘The molecular Lego movie’.

LPEM Movie of the in-situ self-assembly experiment. Stabilized and cropped. Ianiro, A. et al. Nat. Chem. (2019)

This experiment has continuously recorded the whole process of how the membrane is formed under a microscope. Before this, scientists had to freeze the final membrane and get a snapshot of one or several moments of the membrane forming. This advance is achieved due to a well controlled liquid environment and can be now set in the microscope thanks to the DENSsolutions Ocean system.

Screenshots from the video of the membrane forming on the silicon chip. These were taken using a transmission electron microscope. You can watch the full video here. Ianiro, A. et al. Nat. Chem. (2019)
Membranes are of great interest in research as their selective barriers have potential uses in many fields: drug delivery, water treatment and chemical processes all rely on membrane technology. They are of particular interest in pharmaceutical research as they are the ideal shape to transport a drug through the body and release it only when the membrane finds a specific type of cell, for example, a cancer cell.

The Experiment

The researchers from the Materials and Interface Chemistry group led by Prof. Nico Sommerdijk formed a membrane from soap-like molecules called amphiphilic molecules, which simply means that they interact with both fats and water. Amphiphilic molecules are good building blocks for membranes as they can be lined up with the water-interacting side facing one way and the lipid-interacting parts facing the other way to form larger structures.

The DENSsolutions Ocean In Situ TEM liquid system was essential in this research. The core of the system consists of a dual chip Nano-Cell that sandwiches two chips together to form a microfluidic compartment.

First, the chambers within the tip surrounding the Nano-Cell were flooded with an amphiphilic solvent in order for it to fill the compartment. Then, the solvent was expelled with air, leaving the compartment saturated. Finally, the tip was flooded with water which gradually diffused into the compartment. It was during this stage that the water particles encouraged the solvent particles to organise themselves into a membrane structure.

Step 1. Polymer solvent

Step 2. Air

Step 3. Water

The membrane itself formed in stages. First, the solvent molecules arranged themselves into nanodroplets with a hydrophobic core and a protective hydrophilic shell. The DENSsolutions Nano-Cell created a hotspot of these nanodroplets and they gradually arranged themselves into a hollow membrane.
Diagram of the amphiphilic membrane forming in water. Arash Nikoubashman and Friederike Schmid.

Future Research

Watching how the nanoparticles form and arrange themselves with an electron microscope is a huge step in learning how to manipulate these membranes. The techniques covered in this research will be of interest to scientists working in food science, synthesis chemistry and separation science.

Hanglong Wu, who made a significant contribution to this paper during his PhD period, commented in an interview with DENSsolutions, that the technique “has been extensively used in studying the dynamics and structures of hard materials (for example, metallic nanoparticles) in the aqueous solution in the last decade, but it has been barely employed into soft matter field, mainly due to the inherent high beam sensitivity and low contrast.

“In this Nat. Chem. paper, we actually demonstrate we can probe the soft matter formation with such high contrast. People for sure will start to use the technique in the soft matter field.” – Hanglong Wu

The next stage will be fine-tuning how to manipulate the size and shape of the membrane. This research from Eindhoven is an important step in an exciting field.

If you are interested in the equipment we provided for this research, then contact us to see how we can streamline your experiments.

CONTACT

Membranes formed in-lab from nano-droplets could have future use in medicines

For the first time, researchers from the Laboratory of Materials and Interface Chemistry, Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE), with a significant contribution of assistant professor Joe Patterson, have made a comprehensive video of liquid membrane formation using a transmission electron microscope (TEM). They used soap-like nanodroplets submerged in water to create the membrane. Their results are published in Nature, Chemistry and have been highlighted in the Nature, Chemistry News & Views article ‘The molecular Lego movie’.

LPEM Movie of the in-situ self-assembly experiment. Stabilized and cropped. Ianiro, A. et al. Nat. Chem. (2019)

This experiment has continuously recorded the whole process of how the membrane is formed under a microscope. Before this, scientists had to freeze the final membrane and get a snapshot of one or several moments of the membrane forming. This advance is achieved due to a well controlled liquid environment and can be now set in the microscope thanks to the DENSsolutions Ocean system.

Screenshots from the video of the membrane forming on the silicon chip. These were taken using a transmission electron microscope. You can watch the full video here. Ianiro, A. et al. Nat. Chem. (2019)
Membranes are of great interest in research as their selective barriers have potential uses in many fields: drug delivery, water treatment and chemical processes all rely on membrane technology. They are of particular interest in pharmaceutical research as they are the ideal shape to transport a drug through the body and release it only when the membrane finds a specific type of cell, for example, a cancer cell.

The Experiment

The researchers from the Materials and Interface Chemistry group led by Prof. Nico Sommerdijk formed a membrane from soap-like molecules called amphiphilic molecules, which simply means that they interact with both fats and water. Amphiphilic molecules are good building blocks for membranes as they can be lined up with the water-interacting side facing one way and the lipid-interacting parts facing the other way to form larger structures.

The DENSsolutions Ocean In Situ TEM liquid system was essential in this research. The core of the system consists of a dual chip Nano-Cell that sandwiches two chips together to form a microfluidic compartment.

First, the chambers within the tip surrounding the Nano-Cell were flooded with an amphiphilic solvent in order for it to fill the compartment. The solvent was then expelled with air, leaving the compartment saturated. Then, the solvent was expelled with air, leaving the compartment saturated. Finally, the tip was flooded with water which gradually diffused into the compartment. It was during this stage that the water particles encouraged the solvent particles to organise themselves into a membrane structure.

Step 1. Polymer solvent

Step 2. Air

Step 3. Water

The membrane itself formed in stages. First, the solvent molecules arranged themselves into nanodroplets with a hydrophobic core and a protective hydrophilic shell. The DENSsolutions Nano-Cell created a hotspot of these nanodroplets and they gradually arranged themselves into a hollow membrane.
Diagram of the amphiphilic membrane forming in water. Arash Nikoubashman and Friederike Schmid.

Future Research

Watching how the nanoparticles form and arrange themselves with an electron microscope is a huge step in learning how to manipulate these membranes. The techniques covered in this research will be of interest to scientists working in food science, synthesis chemistry and separation science.

Hanglong Wu, who made a significant contribution to this paper during his PhD period, commented in an interview with DENSsolutions, that the technique “has been extensively used in studying the dynamics and structures of hard materials (for example, metallic nanoparticles) in the aqueous solution in the last decade, but it has been barely employed into soft matter field, mainly due to the inherent high beam sensitivity and low contrast.

“In this Nat. Chem. paper, we actually demonstrate we can probe the soft matter formation with such high contrast. People for sure will start to use the technique in the soft matter field.” – Hanglong Wu

The next stage will be fine-tuning how to manipulate the size and shape of the membrane. This research from Eindhoven is an important step in an exciting field.

If you are interested in the equipment we provided for this research, then contact us to see how we can streamline your experiments.

CONTACT