Skip to Main Content
International Institute for Nanotechnology
Kabiller Prize • News • Events • Employment
  • About
    • Message from the Director
    • Partners
      • Centers & Institutes
      • Research Initiatives
      • Laboratories
      • Government Agencies
      • Academic
      • Industrial
    • Facilities
  • People
    • Executive Council
    • Steering Committee
    • Affiliated Faculty
      • Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences
      • Kellogg School of Management
      • Feinberg School of Medicine
      • McCormick School of Engineering & Applied Science
    • Administration
  • Research
    • NanoMedicine
      • Northwestern University Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence (CCNE)
        • NU-CCNE Project 1
        • NU-CCNE Project 2
        • NU-CCNE Project 3
        • NU-CCNE Oligonucleotide Synthesis and Nanoconstructs Core
      • NTU-Northwestern Institute for Nanomedicine (NNIN)
        • NNIN Executive Committee
    • NanoOncology
      • Ronald and JoAnne Willens Center for Nano Oncology
        • Willens Center Project 1
        • Willens Center Project 2
        • Willens Center Project 3
        • Willens Center Project 4
        • Willens Center Project 5
    • NanoEnvironment
      • Nanotechnology for Universal Clean Air & Water Security (NU-CAWS)
        • NU-CAWS Affiliated Faculty
        • NU-CAWS Research Highlights
    • NanoEnergy
    • NanoMaterials
      • Center of Excellence for Advanced Bioprogrammable Nanomaterials (C-ABN)
        • Thrust 1 - Materials & Methods Development
        • Thrust 2 - Functional Substrates
        • Thrust 3 - Advanced Biosensing
    • Molecular Electronics
    • Security & Defense
  • Education
    • Ryan Graduate Fellowships
    • IIN Postdoctoral Fellowships
    • Frontiers in Nanotechnology Seminar Series
    • Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU)
    • All Scout Nano Day
    • Nano Boot Camp for Clinicians
    • Nanotechnology Town Hall Meetings
  • Industry
    • Nanotechnology Corporate Partners (NCP) Program
    • Small Business Partnership
  • Giving
  • Kabiller Prize
    • Overview
    • Kabiller Prize Nomination Process
    • About David Kabiller
    • Kabiller Prize Winners
      • 2019 Chad Mirkin
      • 2017 Robert Langer
      • 2015 Joe DeSimone
    • Kabiller Young Investigator Award Winners
      • 2019 Molly Stevens
      • 2017 Liangfang Zhang
      • 2015 Warren Chan
  • News
  • Events
    • 2020 IIN Virtual Symposium
    • Frontiers in Nanotechnology Seminar Series
    • Nano Boot Camp for Clinicians
    • Nanotechnology Town Hall Meetings
  • Employment
    • Assistant, Associate or Full Professor of Nanotechnology
close
‹ back to news & updates

New technology gives insight into how nanomaterials form and grow

Posted by Sheryl Cash, Posted in News, Research
Share:

Researchers examine ‘living’ nanomaterials for first time

June 27, 2019 | By Amanda Morris

EVANSTON, Ill.—A new form of electron microscopy allows researchers to examine nanoscale tubular materials while they are “alive” and forming liquids — a first in the field.

Developed by a multidisciplinary team at Northwestern University and the University of Tennessee, the new technique, called variable temperature liquid-phase transmission electron microscopy (VT-LPTEM), allows researchers to investigate these dynamic, sensitive materials with high resolution. With this information, researchers can better understand how nanomaterials grow, form and evolve.

Nathan Gianneschi

“Until now, we could only look at ‘dead,’ static materials,” said Northwestern’s Nathan Gianneschi, who co-led the study. “This new technique allows us to examine dynamics directly — something that could not be done before.”

The paper was published online this week in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Gianneschi is the Jacob and Rosaline Cohn Professor of Chemistry in Northwestern’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, professor of materials science and engineering and biomedical engineering in the McCormick School of Engineering, and associate director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology. He co-led the study with David Jenkins, associate professor of chemistry at University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

After live-cell imaging became possible in the early 20th century, it revolutionized the field of biology. For the first time, scientists could watch living cells as they actively developed, migrated and performed vital functions. Before, researchers could only study dead, fixed cells. The technological leap provided critical insight into the nature and behavior of cells and tissues.

“We think LPTEM could do for nanoscience what live-cell light microscopy has done for biology,” Gianneschi said.

LPTEM allows researchers to mix components and perform chemical reactions while watching them unfold beneath a transmission electron microscope.

In this work, Gianneschi, Jenkins and their teams studied metal-organic nanotubes (MONTs). A subclass of metal-organic frameworks, MONTs have high potential for use as nanowires in miniature electronic devices, nanoscale lasers, semiconductors and sensors for detecting cancer biomarkers and virus particles. MONTs, however, are little explored because the key to unlocking their potential lies in understanding how they are formed.

For the first time, the Northwestern and University of Tennessee team watched MONTs form with LPTEM and made the first measurements of finite bundles of MONTs on the nanometer scale.

The research, “Elucidating the growth of metal-organic nanotubes combining isorecticular synthesis with liquid-cell transmission electron microscopy,” was supported by the National Science Foundation (award numbers ECCS-1542205 and DMR-1720139) and the Army Research Office (W911NF-18-1-0359).

The research was a collaboration between Gianneschi’s laboratory, which has expertise in transmission electron microscopy, and Jenkins’s laboratory, which has expertise in metal-organic nanotubes. Northwestern postdoctoral fellow Karthikeyan Gnanasekaran and University of Tennessee graduate student Kristina Vailonis served as the paper’s co-first authors. Gianneschi is also a member of the Simpson Querrey Institute, Chemistry of Life Processes Institute and the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern University.

Read the full article at Northwestern Now.

No Comments


No comments yet.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

* Get an image next to your comment by visiting Gravatar.com and uploading a profile photo that links to your email address.

    Categories

    • Awards and Honors
    • Multimedia
    • Nanoscape Newsletter
    • Nanotechnology at Northwestern
    • News
    • Research
    My Tweets

    For Journalists

    NORTHWESTERN MEDIA CONTACT

    Megan Fellman
    Science and Engineering Editor
    Phone: 847-491-3115
    Email: Megan Fellman

    IIN MEDIA CONTACT

    Kathleen Cook
    Chief of Staff
    Phone: 847-467-5335
    Email: Kathleen Cook

Signup For Our Newsletter

Sign up for our newsletter to receive information on events, news, and articles.

More Info
  • Privacy Policy
  • Tech Transfer
  • News & Events
  • Contact Us
  • Sitemap
  • Education
  • About Us
  • Nano101
  • Facilities
  • Partners
Follow Us
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Youtube
  • Instagram

Northwestern University

© International Institute for Nanotechnology