Jun 17 2002
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) intend to establish a centre for nanoscale science research at their Long Island facility.
The new facility will include clean rooms, nanofabrication facilities and offices as well as expanded electron microscope facilities, ultrafast laser sources and powerful probes. The facilities enable researchers to image atomic and molecular structures and will be accessible to external researchers on a peer-review basis.
The BNL facility is one of 5 such facilities planned by the US Department of energy. These facilities are intended to provide world-class establishments to the scientific community where they can access fabrication and synthesise nanoscale materials not currently available. They will also be able to investigate such materials so that they can develop a better understanding of them and design improved materials in the future.
BNL brings three important factors to the nanomaterials centre:
- It already operates facilities for studying nanomatertials
- They have a history of achievement in the area of characterising and investigating new materials
- They are an integral part of the university community in the northeast, where nanoscience is a rapidly growing area
The areas of specific interest to the BNL Nanomaterials centre will be:
- Examining the changes in the electronic response of metal oxides with nanoscale dimensions
- probing magnetic interactions in nanomaterials
- Studying new methods for making nanocatlysts
- Understanding electronic conduction in molecular wires
- Studying self-assembly of thin organic films
- Applications including building nanoscale electronic devices, ultrathin-flim optical; devices and advanced fuel cell catalysts.
For more information on nanomaterials click here.