Carleton’s nanotechnology students and researchers can now use a state-of-the-art microscope which shows 3D atomic structure, helping them detect minute flaws in their projects.
“Those individual dots, they are atoms,” said Jianqun Wang, a technician at the Nano Imaging Facility in the Steacie Building, as he pointed at a computer screen next to the microscope.
The existing microscope in the facility can only see the surface of a sample. The image also gets a little grainier when transferred to a computer screen, chemistry professor Sean Barry said.
Environment Canada bought the million-dollar microscope and Carleton chipped in about $40,000 to set it up, and will pay for the maintenance cost, Barry said.
“The hard part was to convince the department of chemistry to cover the operation cost of the microscope,” he said.
Carleton was able to get the microscope because Environment Canada has worked with the university in the past, and Carleton had the space and money, Barry said.
With this new microscope, chemistry master’s student Mohamed Daoud said he will be working on creating fertilizers that will release and retain nutrients depending on the condition of the soil. The fertilizer will do this by reacting to the chemicals coming out from the root of a crop, minimizing fertilizer loss.
