Acquisition of a Cyber-Enabled Multi-User Scanning Electron Microscope

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).With support from the Chemistry Research Instrumentation and Facilities: Multiuser program (CRIF:MU), the Department of Chemistry at the University of Toledo will acquire a cyber-enabled, cold cathode field emission scanning electron microscope, with an energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy unit, three electron detectors for surface topography and/or Z-contrast imaging, and electron beam-induced-current imaging capability. The microscope will be used by researchers at University of Toledo, as well as by neighboring institutions in Ohio to study the properties of technologically advanced materials. These studies include: (1) the properties of composite negative thermal expansion materials; (2) the properties of amorphous and nanocrystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) materials and devices, as well as thin film PV materials; (3) the characterization of electrochemical sensors; (4) the characterization of microextraction sampling devices; and (5) studies of nanostructured materials. The miroscope will be used by large numbers of undergraduate and graduate students, both in instructional settings as well as in research. Access to the instrument will be widened, via cyber-enabling and other means, to students in neighboring colleges and high-schools, including a number of home-schooled students.Scanning electron microscopes, like the one purchased under this award, allow chemists to probe the structure of materials with extraordinarily high spatial resolution and with additional chemical and electronic characterization capabilities. This level of detail is especially needed when probing the chemical and physical properties of nanoscale materials, where the chemical heterogeneity changes at precisely these length scales. Without this level of detail, the progress towards new kinds of nanoscale materials will be made much more slowly. The infrastructure made available with this grant will be used in teaching and training a broad range of young scientists in important, cutting-edge, experimental methods.