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.
There is no audio.
Analyzing the surface of materials takes X-ray vision.
To do so, researchers peer into the surface chemistry of materials using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). At Michigan Technological University, the Applied Chemical and Morphological Analysis Laboratory (ACMAL) delves into surfaces with a PHI 5800 XPS.
Read more at Be Brief: Surface, by Allison Mills.
Timothy Leftwich, research assistant professor of materials science, helps researchers to collect, analyze, and understand their XPS data at the ACMAL facility. Kathryn Perrine, assistant professor of chemistry, helped to bring the XPS instrument to Tech and teaches students and researchers to understand surface processes. They both bring expertise in surface science and analysis of materials.
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.
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.