Tools to extract more information on nanomaterials

The nanoscopic environment is very different from the human scale or the microscopic one. The materials have many surprising properties and behavior. For example, the typical yellow color of gold becomes blue, green or red when going from a micrometric scale to a nonmetric scale. Because of this, in the last thirty years, scientists from all over the world have developed a career to characterize these compounds, on such a small scale that they would fit between a thousand and 100,000 in the diameter of a human hair, and to give them use. Until now, these two perspectives, identifying and creating tools, had gone along parallel paths. Researchers from the University of Córdoba (UCO) have proposed to join them now in a third way. Scientists have observed that using nano-tools increases the ability to extract information from this tiny world.

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In the determination of nanoparticles, microscopy techniques are commonly used. The development of a more powerful instrument is of great scientific interest. In 2014, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Eric Betzig, William Moerner and Stefan Hell for creating the fluorescent nanoscope, which ends discriminating objects on the nanoscale.

Researchers from the Department of Analytical Chemistry of the UCO have been working in this molecular environment since 1994 and have produced more than a hundred scientific articles about this world and its surprising materials. "Until now, either it is about identifying new compounds, or it is about giving them an applied use in sectors such as the food or cosmetic industry or for environmental protection", explains Miguel Valcárcel, Professor of Analytical Chemistry and responsible for the scientific team . "As a result of our experience, we have observed that we can create nanomaterials that serve to characterize new ones, which will significantly increase knowledge in this field," he explains.

The proposal has been called the third way in nanoscience and analytical nanotechnology and has been published in the scientific journal Trends in AnalyticalChemistry in 2016. The publication has been very successful among the scientific community, since it is already mentioned in fifty articles since its publication. publication.

The study presents examples in which the determination of nanomaterial’s is observed using these nanoscopic tools. For the detection of new elements, researchers have tested carbon nanotubes, highly prized and used in different industries, both to create lighter bicycles to filter water or develop rechargeable batteries. Also with gold or silver nanoparticles. "These tools are much more powerful than the classic chemical reagents," says Valcárcel.

The philosophy of this third way is to "look for synergistic effects" between the tools and the objects of study. The analytical chemists of the UCO have observed that, by relating nanoanalytes and nano-tools in the same process, processes of characterization, detection and determination of many better features are achieved (eg, greater sensitivity and selectivity)

Far from being something from the distant future, nanotechnology is already present in everyday life. It is estimated that, by 2020, three out of every four food products sold in the United States will have a technological base. They are used, for example, in the detection of phenols in olive oil, the determination and elimination of nanocontaminants in the environment or the development of new cosmetics.

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Created on May 15th 2018 04:55. Viewed 292 times.

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