Scanning Probe Microscopy of Polymer, Biopolymer and Semicrystalline Surface Nanostructures

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The work described in this research program is focused on reducing barriers to productivity. For the team of scientists, this involves actively improving efforts to reduce barriers caused by mental health issues, which are made worse by the stress of social distancing and a lack of community for researchers of diverse genders. The science and technology development itself also aims to reduce barriers - and here we mean ones that cause inefficient uses of chemical energy. The research team will home in on several approaches using new analytical tools and materials invented in past research by the team. The first approach will test ideas for new catalysts based on thin sheets of boron and nitrogen atoms. We propose that mechanical energy and strain at the edges of these sheets creates states of atomic frustration that can be used to pull down barriers to important reactions that could take advantage of resources in which Canada is rich. An example is propane that could be converted to propene, which is an industrially more valuable chemical. This approach will be made possible by studies that will teach chemists and chemical engineers how to guide such useful strain using infrared, light induced mechanical energy - without much loss. The second approach aims to find ways to reduce the randomization of energy which has been the hallmark of chemical reactions for over a century. This involves using new ideas for conserving linear momentum. We will explore a principle illustrated by "Newton's cradle," which is a desk novelty made of a row of steel balls suspended together by strings. Raising and releasing a ball at one end can "knock-on" and cause a second ball at the other end to jump away with momentum that is similar to what the first ball brought in. This efficiency from the conservation of linear momentum was recently demonstrated for molecular systems on rows of copper atoms at a surface, and will be explored more deeply. The third approach is to find ways to reduce the losses of chemical energy in photovoltaic materials using state of the art imaging tools that look for tiny hotspots of inefficiencies. This will provide design rules for the preparation of better materials. And the last approach involves is to exploit similar light induced hotspots as beacons for biodiagnostics. All of these studies will explore new ideas for using energy more wisely.