I-Corps: Soft Analytic Imaging

在相对较短的时间内以高空间和化学分辨率对水基系统进行成像的可能性将为大量以研究为重点的实体和工业提供独特和关键的信息。I-Corps项目的目标是确定市场对一种新方法的需求，该方法使用原子探针断层扫描（APT）对液体进行3D纳米级成像，这是一种传统上用于硬质材料（金属、半导体和氧化物）的技术。所提出的方法的高回报在于该方法的多功能性，不仅可以研究水基系统，还可以应用于水/金属和硬/软界面。这影响了大量与生物材料（细胞和病毒化学和结构、掺杂）、医学领域（重金属对细胞的污染、纳米颗粒）、化学过程（纳米粒子化学、表面化学、用于催化应用的纳米级合成、药物合成）和能源材料（如发电厂的结构材料、电池材料和有机电子设备）的发展相关的研究领域。提出的技术结合了原子探针断层扫描技术，通过原子重建材料提供三维原子与玻璃化方法传统上用于生物样品成像。该装置将使低温冷冻和转移到原子探针断层扫描仪器打开分析成像技术的新应用。提出的水基样品成像技术将扩大原子探针断层成像技术在新领域的成像可能性，从而有可能大大扩大该成像技术的用户基础。

The possibility of imaging water-based systems at high spatial and chemical resolution in a relatively short amount of time would provide unique and critical information for a large number of research focused entities and industries. The objective of this I-Corps project is to determine market need for a new approach enabling the 3D nanoscale imaging of liquids using atom probe tomography (APT), a technique traditionally used for hard materials (metals, semiconductors and oxides).The high pay-off of the proposed approach resides in the versatility of the method that will allow not only water-based systems to be studied, but will also be applicable to water/metal and hard/soft interfaces. This impacts a large number of research areas relevant to the development of biological materials (cells and virus chemistry and structures, doping), medical area (contamination of cells by heavy metals, nanoparticles), chemical processes (nanoparticle chemistry, surface chemistry, nanoscale synthesis for catalytic applications, drug synthesis), and energy materials (such as structural materials for power plants, battery materials, and organic electronic devices). The proposed technology combines the technique of atom probe tomography that provides three-dimensional atom by atom reconstruction of materials with vitrification methods traditionally used for the imaging of biological samples. The device will enable cryo-freezing and transfer into the atom probe tomography instrument opening the analytical imaging technique to novel applications. The proposed technology for water-based samples would expand the imaging possibility of atom probe tomography to new areas and thus has the potential to greatly expand the user base for this imaging technique.