User-Centric
User Helps Develop High Capacity Devices
Carbon nanofiber coated nickel foam.
Staff Scientist Yuegang Zhang and Foundry user Yi Cui of Stanford University have developed high capacity devices for energy storage—a crucial feature in small-scale electronics. In these devices, carbon nanofibers serve as electrodes in a metallic foam network to provide high capacity energy storage.
Brand and Chen Join Inorganic Nanostructures Facility Staff
Alyssa Brand and Emory Chan have joined the Inorganic Nanostructures Facility as Scientific Research Associate and Senior Scientific Engineering Associate, respectively. Brand maintains glove boxes and other laboratory equipment to keep the lab running, while Chan, a former Foundry post-doc will maintain WANDA, the world’s first robotic nanoparticle synthesizer.
New Intruments Strengthen the Foundry
The Inorganic Nanostructures Facility has a new thermogravimetric analysis instrument coupled with a mass spectrometer, strengthening researchers' ability to investigate thermal response properties of a wide range of materials and characterize thermal decomposition processes involved in material synthesis.
The Biological Nanostructures Facility has a new differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) for thermal characterization of soft materials. This nano-DSC will be particularly useful for studying processes in solution, such as self-assembly or bonding interactions.
Q&A with Foundry user Carolyn Pearce
Carolyn Pearce is a Research Fellow at School of Earth in Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences at University of Manchester, UK. Dr. Pearce’s research interests include biosynthesis, bionanomineralization, and bioremediation.
Q. Why did you come to the Molecular Foundry?
A. I came to the Biological Nanostructures Facility to learn how to optimize the biogenic synthesis of nanoparticles after hearing about the Foundry at a nanomaterials conference in San Francisco.
Q. Were you pleased with the Facility you worked with and the unique tools and expertise offered?
A. I was very pleased with all aspects of the Biological Nanostructures Facility, and the Imaging Facility. I was provided with all of the equipment I needed to produce nanomaterials using bacteria and with the expertise to characterize the materials and to modify their properties for specific applications.
Q. What were your experiences in collaborating with the Foundry staff?
A.I had great experiences in collaborating with the Foundry staff. Ron Zuckermann gave me an extremely high level of support while I was there, Bruce Cohen showed me new ways of modifying my materials, Caroline Ajo-Franklin was always available to talk through my experiments, Virginia Altoe contributed considerably to the success of my project by spending so much time with me on the STEM/TEM, and Melike Firat did a fantastic job of making me feel very welcome, providing me with everything I needed to do my research and answering all my many questions related to the lab.
Q. Do you consider the project/research you worked on at the Foundry to be a success? If so, what advances/findings resulted from this work?
A.Yes, I consider the project a success. I have published 2 papers (1 published, 1 in press) and have a further paper and book chapter in preparation based on my research and have presented at a number of international conferences.
