Category: Featured

Graduate students Mikhail Trought (Chemistry) and Chathura de Alwis (Chemistry), with undergraduate student alumnus Isobel Wentworth (ChemEng), research assistant professor Timothy R. Leftwich (MSE), and assistant professor Kathryn A. Perrine (Chemistry) published a paper titled “Influence of surface etching and oxidation on the morphological growth of Al₂O₃ by ALD” in Surface Science on August 9, 2019.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.susc.2019.121479

The authors acknowledge the Applied Chemical & Morphological Analysis Laboratory (ACMAL) at Michigan Technological University for use of instruments and staff assistance, including Director Owen Mills, for training on the FESEM and FIB.

M. Trought and K. Perrine prepared the samples at Michigan Tech and at the Univ. of Minnesota, performed the surface analysis, analyzed all data collected, and wrote the manuscript. T. Leftwich assisted with the XPS data collection and analysis, and reviewing & editing the manuscript. I. Wentworth and C. de Alwis assisted with sample preparation and FTIR analysis. K. Perrine conceptualized the project.

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Research by Stephen A. Hackney, Professor, Materials Science and Engineering, Michigan Technological University.

Imaging by Pinaki Mukherjee, Staff, Materials Science and Engineering, Engineer/Scientist, Applied Chemical and Morphological Analysis Laboratory (ACMAL).

Instrument: FEI 200kV Titan Themis S-TEM in ACMAL’s Electron Optics Facility.

Scale bar indicates 500 nm.

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Supercritical carbon dioxide is used to exfoliate graphite, producing a small, several-layer graphitic flake. The supercritical conditions of 2000, 2500, and 3000 psi and temperatures of 40°, 50°, and 60°C, have been used to study the effect of critical density on the sizes and zeta potentials of the treated flakes. Photon Correlation Spectroscopy (PCS), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area measurement, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) are used to observe the features of the flakes.

Wattanaprayoon, Chaiyaporn, “Graphite exfoliation by supercritical carbon dioxide extraction”, Master’s Thesis, Michigan Technological University, 2011.

https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/etds/8

HLF 1 taken with SEM. Eutectic crystallization texture in iron silicides from a fulgurite from lower Michigan (lightning strike glass). Submitted by Christopher Stefano, Associate Curator, A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum.