Purchase of a Transmission Electron Microscope: a Regional Cyber-User Facility for Materials Chemistry and the Northern Plains Undergraduate Research Center

在化学研究仪器和设施：多用户计划（CRIF:MU）的支持下，南达科他州大学化学系将获得一台网络传输电子显微镜（TEM）。该显微镜将由南达科他州大学和大平原地区其他机构的研究人员使用，包括北部平原本科生研究中心的成员。获得该仪器的项目将包括：(1)研究掺杂镧三氟化镧纳米颗粒的表面敏化；(2)研究镧系掺杂纳米粒子对金属表面上转换发光的增强潜力；(3)贵金属含二氧化钛气凝胶的TEM研究；(4)合成定义良好的纳米晶体用于催化；(5)探索碳质材料的形态与其烷基化、苯氧化、光氧化催化活性的关系；(6)纳米复合材料在表面增强拉曼散射传感应用中的性能和自组装研究。该显微镜将被大量的本科生和研究生使用，无论是在教学环境还是在研究中。该仪器的使用将通过网络和其他方式扩大到大平原地区的学生研究人员，包括Sinte Gleska大学的学生。透射电子显微镜，就像在这个奖项下购买的那样，可以让化学家看到他们在实验室里制造的材料的原子级细节。当探测纳米级材料的化学性质时，这种程度的细节是特别需要的，因为纳米级材料的化学非均质性正是在这些长度尺度上变化的。如果没有这种程度的细节，开发新型纳米材料的进程将会缓慢得多。这笔拨款提供的基础设施将用于教学和培训广泛的年轻科学家，包括相当数量的美国土著科学家，学习重要的、尖端的实验方法。

With support from the Chemistry Research Instrumentation and Facilities: Multiuser program (CRIF:MU), the Department of Chemistry at the University of South Dakota will acquire a Cyber-enabled Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM). The microscope will be used by researchers at the University of South Dakota, and other institutions in the Great Plains region, including the members of the Northern Plains Undergraduate Research Center. The projects that acquisition of this instrumentation will enable include: (1) study of the surface sensitization of Ln-doped lanthanum trifluoride nanoparticles; (2) investigation of the potential for metal-surface enhancement of upconversion luminescence from Lanthanide-doped nanoparticles; (3) TEM studies of noble metal containing titanium dioxide aerogels; (4) the synthesis of well-defined nanocrystals for catalysis; (5) exploration of the relationship between morphology of carbonaceous materials and their catalytic activity toward alkylation, benzylic oxidation and phtooxidation; and (6) study of the properties and self-assembly of nanocomposites for surface enhanced Raman scattering in sensing applications. The microscope will be used by large numbers of undergraduate and graduate students, both in instructional settings as well as in research. Access to the instrument will be widened, via cyber-enabling and other means, to student researchers in the Great Plains region, including students at Sinte Gleska University. Transmission electron microscopes, like the one purchased under this award, allow chemists to see atomic-level details of materials that they make in their laboratories. This level of detail is especially needed when probing the chemical properties of nanoscale materials, where chemical heterogeneity changes at precisely these length scales. Without this level of detail, the progress towards new kinds of nanoscale materials will be made much more slowly. The infrastructure made available with this grant will be used in teaching and training a broad range of young scientists, including significant numbers of Native American scientists, in important, cutting-edge, experimental methods.