Nanoscale characterization facilities linking the solution and solid state

新材料和最先进的材料加工方法是几乎所有技术进步的核心，从电信到可再生能源发电，从电子显示器到医疗设备。圣安德鲁斯大学在这一领域拥有世界领先的专业知识，包括化学、物理和天文学院的研究人员。该大学致力于通过战略招聘将成为下一代领导者的早期职业研究人员来确保其在这一领域的领先地位。此外，该大学正在通过对设备，建筑物和设施的投资来支持当前和未来的研究领导者的临界质量。材料研究的许多重大进展将是在纳米尺度上精确控制和理解物质的结果。这就需要现代化的设备来分析材料，这些材料由具有不同化学组成的成分组成，处于各种物理状态（例如固体或溶液），在几个尺寸尺度上制备和排列-从尺寸小于一纳米的分子到可以看到和持有的散装设备，以及介于两者之间的一切。只有通过结合来自一系列分析方法的信息，研究人员才能完全理解这些新的复杂材料，从而能够合理地设计和优化它们，使其具有未来技术进步所需的性能。我们已经确定了两种特定的设备，以不同但非常互补的方式解决这一表征挑战，并且我们的许多（10多个）早期职业研究人员都需要这些设备。该设备将补充我们已经优秀的制造和表征先进材料的设施范围。它将允许非常薄的薄膜固体的关键参数的快速，现场表征，以及用于从溶液制备这些固体的构建块。有了这些新功能，我们的研究人员将能够准确地了解构建模块的特征与所生产材料的特征之间的关系，从而有效地优化其材料和工艺。该设备经过专门选择，为尽可能广泛的早期职业研究人员提供了显着的好处，这些研究人员在不同的领域工作，如微型柔性显示器的光学材料，发光二极管的新组件;下一代太阳能电池的材料，或气态药物的输送装置。由于这个奖项，这些年轻的研究小组中的每一个都将能够进行实验，否则他们将无法做到;他们将对他们所使用的系统和材料产生新的，更深入的科学理解;他们将能够更有效地进行更高质量的研究。这将对这些新兴研究领导者的职业生涯以及可以在圣安德鲁斯进行的科学的巨大广度带来巨大的好处。这一建议将发挥关键作用，使这些早期阶段的研究人员充分发挥潜力，并发展成为下一代国际知名的研究领导者。

New materials and state-of-the-art methods for materials processing are at the heart of virtually all technological advances, from telecommunications to renewable energy generation, electronic displays to medical devices. The University of St Andrews has world-leading expertise in this area, spanning researchers in the Schools of both Chemistry and Physics and Astronomy. The University has committed to securing its leading position in this area through strategic recruitment of early career researchers who will become the next generation of leaders. Furthermore, the University is supporting this critical mass of current and future research leaders through investments in equipment, buildings and facilities. Many of the next great advances in materials research will be made as a result of precisely controlling and understanding matter on the nanoscale. This requires modern equipment for the analysis of materials that consist of components with different chemical make-ups, in various physical states (e.g. solids or solutions), prepared and arranged on several size-scales - from molecules less than a nanometer in size to bulk devices that can be seen and held, and everything in between. Only by combining information from a range of analytical methods can researchers hope to fully understand these new complicated materials, and therefore be able to logically design and optimize them to possess the properties required for future technological advances. We have identified two specific items of equipment that address this characterization challenge in different, but very complementary, ways, and which are needed by many (more than 10) of our early career researchers. This equipment will complement our already excellent range of facilities for fabrication and characterization of advanced materials. It will allow the rapid, on-site characterization of key parameters of very thin film solids, and of the building blocks used to prepare these solids from solutions. With these new capabilities, our researchers will be able to accurately understand how features of the building blocks relate to the characteristics of the materials produced, and therefore efficiently optimize their materials and procedures. This equipment has been specifically chosen to have a significant benefit for the widest possible range of early career researchers, working in as diverse areas as optical materials for tiny flexible displays, new components of light emitting diodes; materials for next-generation solar cells, or delivery devices for gaseous drugs. As a result of this award, each of these young research groups will be able to perform experiments that they would otherwise just not be able to do; they will generate new, deeper scientific understanding about the systems and materials they work with; and they will be able to produce higher quality research more efficiently. This will have hugely significant benefits for the careers of these emerging research leaders, and for a huge breadth of science that can be performed at St Andrews. This proposal will play a crucial role in allowing these early stage researchers to realize their full potential and develop into the next generation of internationally renowned research leaders.