More insights with AFM

17-Mar-2023

A further development in atomic force microscopy now makes it possible to simultaneously image the height profile of nanometre-fine structures as well as the electric current and the frictional force at solid-liquid interfaces. A team from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and the Fritz Haber ...

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The most detailed look yet at the surface chemistry and structure of individual cellulose nanocrystal particles

19-Oct-2022

Chemists in Japan, Canada and Europe have uncovered flaws in the surface structure of cellulose nanocrystals—an important step toward deconstructing cellulose to produce renewable nano-materials relevant to biochemical products, energy solutions, and biofuels. The findings—published in Science ...

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Pulses from an atom-sharp tip enable researchers to break and form chemical bonds at will

31-Aug-2022

Chemical reactions often produce messy mixtures of different products. Hence, chemists spend a lot of time coaxing their reactions to be more selective to make particular target molecules. Now, an international team of researchers has achieved that kind of selectivity by delivering voltage pulses ...

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In-situ electrochemical imaging method with nanoscale spatial resolution combined atomic force microscopy and scanning electrochemical imaging

03-Dec-2021

The involvement between electron transfer (ET) and catalytic reaction at electrocatalyst surface makes electrochemical process challenging to understand and control. How to experimentally determine ET process occurring at nanoscale is important to understand the overall electrochemical reaction ...

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“It's an incredible image - being able to actually see a single small molecule on a surface with another one bonded to it is amazing”

06-Oct-2021

The team used a high-resolution atomic force microscope (AFM) operating in a controlled environment at Princeton’s Imaging and Analysis Center. The AFM probe, whose tip ends in a single copper atom, was moved gradually closer to the iron-carbon bond until it was ruptured. The researchers measured ...

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Researchers track the first step of the reaction of one single dye pigment with oxygen at unprecedented resolution

26-Jul-2021

Why is it that the colours of a t-shirt fade over time in the sun? Why do you get a sunburn, and why do the leaves of a tree turn brown in the autumn? These questions all have one theme in common, the interplay between dye pigments and ambient oxygen. Every child learns about this chemical ...

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Precisely understand and improve chemical properties of surfaces

30-Apr-2021

The acidity of molecules can be easily determined, but until now it was not possible to measure this important property for atoms on a surface. With a new microscopy technique from the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien), this has now been achieved. The degree of acidity or alkalinity of a ...

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19-Mar-2021

Solar cells made of crystalline silicon achieve peak efficiencies, especially in combination with selective contacts made of amorphous silicon (a-Si:H). However, their efficiency is limited by losses in these contact layers. Now, for the first time, a team at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and ...

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New method could advance next-generation applications in medicine, cosmetics, and petroleum recovery

26-Feb-2021

Liquid structures - liquid droplets that maintain a specific shape - are useful for a variety of applications, from food processing to cosmetics, medicine, and even petroleum extraction, but researchers have yet to tap into these exciting new materials' full potential because not much is known ...

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The improvements will increase the versatility and the precision of the instrument

30-Jun-2020

Researchers at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology have developed a new method to improve the detection ability of nanoscale chemical imaging using atomic force microscopy. These improvements reduce the noise that is associated with the microscope, increasing the precision ...

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