ULTRA-SPEED ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPY FOR CRYSTALLISATION

水晶自古以来就为人类提供了魅力和实用性，在古代文明中占有重要地位，具有护身符的特性，或者作为早期开普勒望远镜中功能性的石英透镜。自然界利用晶体的光学优势与三叶虫的眼睛相似，三叶虫的眼睛由方解石（碳酸钙）透镜组成。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，经常在贝壳内部看到的美丽的彩虹色珍珠母贝是文石晶体，生物体仔细地控制着文石晶体的大小，使其与光的波长相同-因此光散射。但晶体也几乎应用于我们现代生活的方方面面，从改善我们健康的药物到制造化学物质的催化剂，再到丰富我们生活的光电设备。晶体是有组织的物质，其中的分子一个接一个地排列成一个规则的、无限重复的阵列。这种组织中的错误会导致晶体的不完美或缺陷，从而极大地改变晶体的性质和使用。当错误发生时，晶体通常会将错误丢弃回溶液中，最终只接受正确定位的分子。然而，缺陷仍然存在。这些固体晶体通过组成最终结构的分子的可控沉淀从溶液或气相中生长出来，由于晶体的巨大重要性，在过去的100年里，人们一直对这些晶体的形成方式感兴趣。然而，在过去的十年中，能够在分子尺度上监测晶体生长的现代显微镜工具已经可用并用于此类研究。这为晶体生长过程的复杂性提供了大量新的详细信息，为大自然和科学家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，每一种晶体在生长方式上都表现出特殊性，然而，总有一些基本的规则支配着所有晶体的生长。这项工作的目的是建立一个最先进的显微镜设备，能够观察晶体的生长几乎一个分子一个分子，这样用户就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，以生产出尺寸、形状和纯度合适的晶体，以实现感兴趣的功能。无论是像扑热息痛这样的药物，还是像电池这样的电脑材料，或者是捕捉二氧化碳以改善气候变化的材料。该设施将对所有对结晶过程感兴趣的人开放。

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.