Purchase of a Transmission Electron Microscope: a Regional Cyber-User Facility for Materials Chemistry and the Northern Plains Undergraduate Research Center

在化学研究仪器和设施：多用户计划(CRIF：MU)的支持下，南达科他州大学化学系将获得一台网络电子显微镜。该显微镜将由南达科他大学和大平原地区其他机构的研究人员使用，包括北部平原本科生研究中心的成员。收购这一仪器将能够实现的项目包括：(1)研究Ln掺杂的三氟化镧纳米颗粒的表面敏化；(2)研究稀土掺杂纳米颗粒在金属表面增强上转换发光的潜力；(3)含贵金属的二氧化钛气凝胶的透射电子显微镜研究；(4)合成用于催化的明确的纳米晶；(5)探索碳材料的形貌与其对烷基化、苯甲酸氧化和光氧化的催化活性之间的关系；以及(6)研究用于表面增强拉曼散射的纳米复合材料在传感应用中的性能和自组装。该显微镜将被大量的本科生和研究生使用，无论是在教学环境中还是在研究中。通过网络支持和其他方式，大平原地区的学生研究人员将更多地使用该仪器，包括新特·格列斯卡大学的学生。透射式电子显微镜，就像根据这一奖项购买的那样，使化学家能够看到他们在实验室中制造的材料的原子级细节。在探索纳米材料的化学性质时，这种详细程度尤其需要，因为化学异质性恰恰在这些长度尺度上发生变化。如果没有这种程度的细节，新型纳米材料的进展将会缓慢得多。用这笔赠款提供的基础设施将用于教授和培训广泛的年轻科学家，包括相当数量的美洲原住民科学家，在重要的、尖端的实验方法方面。

With support from the Chemistry Research Instrumentation and Facilities: Multiuser program (CRIF:MU), the Department of Chemistry at the University of South Dakota will acquire a Cyber-enabled Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM). The microscope will be used by researchers at the University of South Dakota, and other institutions in the Great Plains region, including the members of the Northern Plains Undergraduate Research Center. The projects that acquisition of this instrumentation will enable include: (1) study of the surface sensitization of Ln-doped lanthanum trifluoride nanoparticles; (2) investigation of the potential for metal-surface enhancement of upconversion luminescence from Lanthanide-doped nanoparticles; (3) TEM studies of noble metal containing titanium dioxide aerogels; (4) the synthesis of well-defined nanocrystals for catalysis; (5) exploration of the relationship between morphology of carbonaceous materials and their catalytic activity toward alkylation, benzylic oxidation and phtooxidation; and (6) study of the properties and self-assembly of nanocomposites for surface enhanced Raman scattering in sensing applications. The microscope 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 student researchers in the Great Plains region, including students at Sinte Gleska University. Transmission electron microscopes, like the one purchased under this award, allow chemists to see atomic-level details of materials that they make in their laboratories. This level of detail is especially needed when probing the chemical properties of nanoscale materials, where 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, including significant numbers of Native American scientists, in important, cutting-edge, experimental methods.