ULTRA-SPEED ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPY FOR CRYSTALLISATION

用于结晶的超高速原子力显微镜

• 批准号: EP/W036479/1
• 负责人: Michael Anderson
• 金额: $ 78.78万
• 依托单位: University of Manchester
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FW036479%2F1
• 关键词: ULTRA; SPEED; ATOMIC; FORCE; MICROSCOPY

Crystals have provided fascination and utility to man since the dawn of time taking an important place in ancient civilisations with talismanic properties or as the functional quartz lens in the early Keplerian telescopes. The natural world utilises crystals for not dissimilar optical advantage with the eyes of trilobites consisting of calcite (calcium carbonate) lenses. Shells on the beach are also principally calcium carbonate, some parts calcite and other parts a different mineral aragonite (but still calcium carbonate). Indeed the beautiful iridescent mother-of-pearl often seen on the inside of a shell are crystals of aragonite that the organism has carefully controlled to be of a size about the same as the wavelength of light - and hence the light scattering. But crystals are also used in almost every aspect of our modern life, from the pharmaceuticals that improve our health to the catalysts that make our chemicals to the opto-electronic gadgets that enrich our lives. Crystals are organised matter, where molecules are arranged next to one another in a regular, infinitely repeating array. Mistakes in this organisation results in imperfections or defects in the crystal that can vastly alter the properties and use of the crystal. The crystals perform a clever trick by normally discarding mistakes back into solution as and when they occur and only ultimately accepting correctly positioned molecules. Nevertheless, defects do still occur. These solid crystals grow out of solutions or from the gas phase via the controlled precipitation of the molecules that make up the final structure and, because of the enormous importance of crystals, there has been interest over the past 100 years in how these crystals form. However, it is only in the past decade that modern microscopy tools that are able to monitor the growing crystals at the molecular scale have been available and deployed in such studies. This is providing a vast amount of new detailed information about the intricacies of the crystal-growth process that provides clues as to how Nature does - and scientists may - control these processes. Every crystal structure is different and every crystal shows peculiarities in the manner of growth, however, there are always some underlying rules that govern all crystal growth.The objective of this work is to set up a state-of-the-art microscope facility that is able to observe crystals growing almost molecule-by-molecule so that the users can better understand how their crystals are growing. Armed with this knowledge they will be able to adjust how their crystals grow in order to produce crystals of the right size, shape and purity to perform the function of interest. Whether this is a medicine such as paracetamol, a material to go in your computer such as a battery or a material to capture carbon dioxide to improve climate change. The facility will be available to all those interested in crystallisation processes.

水晶提供了魅力和实用性的人，因为黎明的时间采取了重要的地方，在古代文明与护身符属性或作为功能石英透镜在早期开普勒望远镜。自然界利用晶体的光学优势与由方解石（碳酸钙）透镜组成的三叶虫的眼睛没有什么不同。海滩上的贝壳也主要是碳酸钙，部分是方解石，其他部分是不同的矿物文石（但仍然是碳酸钙）。事实上，在贝壳内部经常看到的美丽的彩虹色珍珠母是文石晶体，生物体仔细控制其大小与光的波长相同-因此光散射。但晶体也几乎用于我们现代生活的各个方面，从改善我们健康的药物到制造化学品的催化剂，再到丰富我们生活的光电器件。晶体是有组织的物质，其中分子以规则的、无限重复的阵列彼此相邻排列。这种组织中的错误会导致晶体中的缺陷或缺陷，这会极大地改变晶体的性质和用途。晶体执行一个聪明的把戏，通常丢弃错误回到溶液中，当它们发生时，只有最终接受正确定位的分子。然而，缺陷仍然存在。这些固体晶体从溶液中生长出来，或者通过构成最终结构的分子的受控沉淀从气相中生长出来，并且由于晶体的巨大重要性，在过去的100年中，人们一直对这些晶体如何形成感兴趣。然而，只是在过去的十年中，能够在分子尺度上监测生长晶体的现代显微镜工具才可用于并部署在此类研究中。这为晶体生长过程的复杂性提供了大量新的详细信息，为自然界如何控制这些过程提供了线索。每一种晶体的结构都是不同的，每一种晶体的生长方式都有其独特之处，然而，总有一些潜在的规则支配着所有的晶体生长。这项工作的目标是建立一个最先进的显微镜设施，能够观察晶体生长几乎一个分子接一个分子，以便用户可以更好地了解他们的晶体是如何生长的。有了这些知识，他们将能够调整晶体的生长方式，以产生合适大小、形状和纯度的晶体，从而实现感兴趣的功能。无论这是一种药物，如扑热息痛，一种材料，如电池，或一种材料，以捕捉二氧化碳，以改善气候变化。该设施将提供给所有对结晶过程感兴趣的人。

项目成果

Crystallization of molecular layers produced under confinement onto a surface

• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-45900-0
• 发表时间: 2024-03-05
• 期刊: NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
• 影响因子: 16.6
• 作者: Tong，Jincheng;de Bruyn，Nathan;Casiraghi，Cinzia
• 通讯作者: Casiraghi，Cinzia