Electron microscopy analysis of (nano)materials with environmental, biological and industrial importance

我们的研究团队处于与改善加拿大人生活相关的重要研究项目的最前沿。在材料科学方面，我们的目标是更好地了解材料的基本原理，例如纳米级的聚合物组件，这些组件是增材制造中的一系列应用所必需的，也是设计新的金属催化剂，半导体和电极材料所必需的，以满足绿色合成和能量存储的需求。在环境和生物科学方面，我们调查了加拿大北极地区造成空气和土壤污染的颗粒物，我们研究了增加作物产量的植物生物学机制，我们的团队调查了考古遗址，以揭开加拿大这些遗址的神秘面纱。在生命科学领域，我们设计了纳米传感器来研究神经系统疾病和癌症，并为在当前流行病中创造新的诊断技术做出了重大贡献。 蒙特利尔大学于2019年秋季开设了一个名为MIL的新校区，致力于自然科学（化学，物理，生物科学和地理）。该校区位于蒙特利尔大学主校区外。材料是在校园MIL和电子显微镜（EM）进行的研究的核心是经常需要提供的结构和组成的（纳米）材料的详细程度，在我们的研究计划中开发，分析和调查。由于这个校园没有电子显微镜，我们迫切需要在校园内使用扫描电子显微镜（SEM）和透射电子显微镜（TEM）与能量色散X射线光谱（EDS），以加速我们的研究。因此，我们要求资金购买台式电子显微镜，将托管在matériaux，在校园MIL的开放获取设施，培训我们的学生和研究人员在这个重要的材料表征工具，并支持我们的研究计划。作为我们研究理念的核心，我们希望使EM的使用民主化，目前仅限于选定的研究人员，因为高端仪器的使用受到限制，因为使用EM需要广泛的培训，与其使用相关的成本，以及蒙特利尔大学主校区的中央设施的偏远位置，这由于校园之间的运输问题而限制了可以分析的样品的类型。因此，我们预计将显著增加EM培训的研究人员数量，从而在5年内为化学，生物学，物理学和地理学的200多个HQP的研究做出贡献。我们还估计，该设施将在未来5年内为大约200篇研究论文生成高质量的EM图像和EDS。

Our research team is at the forefront of important research projects related to improving the lives of Canadians. In material science, we aim to better understand the fundamentals of materials, such as polymer assemblies at the nanoscale necessary for a series of applications in additive fabrication and for the design of new metallic catalysts, semi-conductors and electrode materials to address the need for greener synthesis and energy storage. In environmental and biological sciences, we investigate particulate matter causing air and soil pollution in the Canadian Arctic, we study plant biology mechanisms to increase crop yields and our team investigates archeological sites to unravel the mysteries of these sites in Canada. In life science, we design nanosensors to investigate neurological diseases and cancer, and we significantly contribute to the efforts to create new diagnostic technologies in the current pandemic. The Université de Montréal inaugurated a new campus called MIL in Fall 2019 that is dedicated to natural sciences (chemistry, physics, biological sciences and geography). This campus is located off-site from the Université de Montréal main campus. Materials are at the heart of research conducted at Campus MIL and electron microscopy (EM) is routinely needed to provide a high level of detail on the structure and composition of the (nano)materials developed, analyzed and investigated in our research programs. As no electron microscope is available on this campus, we direly need on-campus access to a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) to accelerate our research. We therefore request funds to purchase a benchtop electron microscope that will be hosted in the Laboratoire de caractérisation des matériaux, an open access facility on Campus MIL, to train our students and researchers on this essential materials characterization tool and to support our research programs. Central to our research philosophy, we want to democratize access to EM, which is currently restricted to only selected researchers as the use of higher-end instruments is limited due to the extensive training required for the use of EM, the cost associated with their use, and the remote location of this central facility on the main campus of Université de Montréal, which restricts the type of samples that can be analyzed due to transportation issues between campuses. As such, we anticipate significantly increasing the number of researchers trained on EM and therefore contributing to the research of over 200 HQPs in chemistry, biology, physics, and geography in the course of 5 years. We also estimate that the facility will generate high-quality EM images and EDS for approximately 200 research papers in the next 5 years.