High-­Resolution Atomic Force Microscope for Materials and Surfaces Characterization

这笔赠款将用于购买AFM仪器，为拉瓦尔大学理工学院3个不同系的10名研究人员提供增强的纳米级分析能力。事实上，高分辨率原子力显微镜对于研究纳米粒子、聚合物膜形态、生物膜、碳纳米材料和界面都有很大的帮助。这一有用的工具将支持和简化来自材料科学的10个研究小组的80多名科学家的创新研究计划，这些研究小组涉及不同的应用，包括开发用于晶体管和太阳能电池的新半导体、用于光纤的玻璃材料、用于传感器的量子点、聚合物纳米复合材料、荧光纳米颗粒和用于分子识别的定制多肽。所要求的原子力显微镜适用于所有使用非常不同类型的分子的共同申请者，因为所选的模型是市场上关于要分析的样品最通用的模型之一。此外，高分辨率将对那些研究分子系统的人非常有用。一个新的特征，导电原子力显微镜，将对在纳米尺度上研究材料的电子性质非常有用，从而为参与有机电子领域的研究人员提供明显的优势。购买这种设备将有助于表征所研究的新材料的物理性能，这可能比其他表征技术更具成本和时间效益。科学与工程学院(FSG)没有这样的仪器，迫使申请者将他们的样本送到外部，极大地阻碍了许多项目的进展，并导致了可以更有效地使用的不必要的支出。目前，科学和工程学院的研究人员没有其他类似的仪器可用。

This grant will be use to purchase an AFM instrument to provide 10 researchers of 3 different departments of the Faculty of science and Engineering at Universite Laval with an increased analytical capability at the nanoscale. In fact, the high-resolution AFM is very helpful for studying nanoparticles, polymer films morphology, biofilms, carbon nanomaterials and interfaces. This useful tool will support and ease the innovative research programs of more than 80 scientists from 10 research groups involved in materials science for different applications including development of new semiconductors for transistors and solar cells, vitreous materials for optic fibers, quantum dots for sensors, polymer nanocomposites, fluorescent nanoparticles and customized peptides for molecular recognition. The AFM requested is appropriate for all co-applicants working with very different types of molecules since the model selected is one of the most versatile on the market regarding the sample to analyze. Moreover, the high-resolution will be highly useful for those studying molecular systems. A new feature, the conducting AFM, will be highly useful for studying the electronic properties of materials at the nanoscale, thus providing a clear edge to the researchers involved in the area of organic electronics. Purchasing this equipment will aid in characterizing the physical properties of the studied new materials, which can be more cost- and time-effective than other characterization techniques. The absence of such instrument in the Faculty of Sciences and Engineering (FSG) forces the group of applicants to send their samples externally, impeding tremendously the progression of many projects and resulting in unnecessary spendings that could be used more fruitfully.There are no other similar instruments currently available to the researchers in the Faculty of Science and Engineering.