MRI: Acquisition of an Analytical Scanning Electron Microscope for an Interdisciplinary Multi-user Facility

技术摘要三一学院的跨学科多用户电子显微镜设备寻求资金，以获得现代分析变压扫描电子显微镜(SEM)，作为一种关键的研究工具，用于对来自各科学领域的材料和生命科学标本进行成像和元素分析。所要求的扫描电子显微镜将在利邦？S现有的EM设施中发挥重要和补充的作用，该设施目前由两台透射电子显微镜组成，其中包括一台分析型透射电子显微镜/(S)透射电子显微镜、一系列样品制备工具和一台已有24年历史、功能减弱的扫描电子显微镜。新的扫描电子显微镜将为来自不同领域的研究人员提供服务，这些研究项目包括胎生爬行动物胎盘形态研究(生物学)、湖泊沉积物中的微粒子研究(环境科学)、考古人工制品(化学和经典)、纳米线表征(物理)和软凝聚物质(工程学)。所需的具有X射线能量色散光谱和微型X射线荧光的变压扫描电子显微镜将满足三一学院科学研究和教学的需求，并促进更多的科学原理和先进的科学仪器向更多的教职员工、学生和合作者展示。它将被科学和其他学科的教职员工和本科生用于研究和研究培训。它将通过在本科课程和实验室模块中使用它来支持教育，这些模块是为每个科学系或项目量身定做的，并将本科生纳入教师研究。该仪器的易用性和广泛的分析能力将使从地质样品到生物组织、从考古文物到已制成的纳米线和泡沫的标本能够在成像和分析应用中以高空间分辨率进行检查。它将支持生物、环境科学、化学、神经科学、工程学和物理学三位一体研究人员增加的用户数量和类型，邻近机构的合作者，非技术摘要三一学院的跨学科多用户电子显微镜设备寻求资金，以获得现代分析可变压力扫描电子显微镜(SEM)，作为对材料和生命科学标本的成像和元素分析的关键研究工具，来自各科学领域。所需的扫描电子显微镜将满足三一学院科学研究和教学的需求，并促进更多的科学原理和先进的科学仪器暴露给更多的教职员工、学生和合作者。这种扫描电子显微镜是一种先进的科学工具，它能够对太小的结构进行高分辨率成像，这些结构太小了，无法用肉眼甚至光学显微镜来观察。各种检测器使多种样品类型的复杂和互补成分分析成为可能。利用这台仪器收集的见解有助于更好地理解一种材料--S在涉及生物(如细胞和器官、昆虫、植物、细菌)、物理科学(如陶瓷、半导体、塑料、岩石)和环境科学(如沉积物、大气污染物和地质历史)的研究中，在纳米水平上的结构/功能关系。将扫描电子显微镜纳入研究和学分大学课程，使跨科学学科和人文学科的学生接触到先进科学仪器的理论基础和应用，包括适当的科学数据收集和分析以及研究结果的展示。

Technical abstractThe interdisciplinary multi-user Electron Microscopy Facility at Trinity College seeks funds to acquire a modern analytical variable-pressure Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) to serve as a critical research tool for imaging and elemental analysis of materials and life science specimens from across the sciences. The requested SEM will play an important and complementary role in Trinity?s existing EM Facility which currently comprises two Transmission Electron Microscopes including an analytical TEM/(S)TEM, a wide range of specimen preparation tools, and a failing 24-year-old SEM with diminished functionality. The new SEM will serve researchers from diverse fields working on projects that include the study of placental morphology in viviparous reptiles (Biology), microparticulates in lake sediments (Environmental Science), archeological artifacts (Chemistry and Classics), nanowire characterization (Physics), and soft condensed matter (Engineering).The requested variable-pressure SEM with X-ray Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy and Micro X-ray Fluorescence will meet the research and pedagogical needs of the sciences at Trinity and facilitate greater exposure of scientific principles and advanced scientific instrumentation to more faculty, students and collaborators. It will be used by faculty and undergraduates in the sciences and in other disciplines for research and research training. It will support education by its use in undergraduate courses and laboratory modules tailored to each science department or program and the inclusion of undergraduates in faculty research. The ease of use and broad analytical capabilities of this instrument will enable examination of specimens ranging from geological samples to biological tissues, from archeological artifacts to fabricated nanowires and foams, with a high degree of spatial resolution in both imaging and analytical applications. It will support increased numbers of users and types of scientific investigation by Trinity researchers in Biology, Environmental Science, Chemistry, Neuroscience, Engineering and Physics, by collaborators in neighboring institutions, and in established outreach programs that include undergraduate and graduate students as well as high school and grammar school students and their teachers.Non-technical abstractThe interdisciplinary multi-user Electron Microscopy Facility at Trinity College seeks funds to acquire a modern analytical variable-pressure Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) to serve as a critical research tool for imaging and elemental analysis of materials and life science specimens from across the sciences.The requested SEM will meet the research and pedagogical needs of the sciences at Trinity and facilitate greater exposure of scientific principles and advanced scientific instrumentation to more faculty, students and collaborators. This SEM is an advanced scientific tool which enables high-resolution imaging of structures far too small to be visualized by the unaided eye or even with a light microscope. Various detectors make possible complex and complementary compositional analysis of a wide range of sample types. Insights gathered with this instrument result in a better understanding of a material?s structural/functional relationships at the nano-level in studies involving biology (such as cells and organs, insects, plants, bacteria), the physical sciences (such as ceramics, semiconductors, plastics, rocks) and environmental science (such as sediments, atmospheric pollutants, and geologic history). Incorporating the SEM into both research and credited college courses exposes students across scientific disciplines and the humanities to the theoretical basis and applications of advanced scientific instrumentation, including proper scientific data collection and analysis and the presentation of research results.