Scientists say Graphene can help study liquids more clearly

Updated on: Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Scientists have claimed that, carbon-based material graphene can help study liquids more clearly at higher resolution than was previously possible.

Liquids had been difficult to view at the same resolution as solids because these microscopes require the liquids to be encapsulated by some material.

Traditionally, silicon nitride or silicon oxide capsules, or liquid cells, have been used. But these are generally too thick to see through clearly.

Now, a team at the University of California, Berkeley, have shown that pockets created by sheets of graphene can be used to study liquids at clear, atomic, resolution using transmission electron microscopes (TEMs), the BBC reported.

The researchers used their new graphene-based liquid cell to study the formation of platinum nanocrystals in solution.

With this technique, detailed in the journal Science, the UCB team, led by Jong Min Yuk, was able to observe new and unexpected stages of nanocrystal growth as it happened.

They noted how the crystals selectively coalesced and modified their shape.

Graphene consists of a flat layer of carbon atoms tightly packed into a two-dimensional honeycomb arrangement.

Because it's so thin, it is also practically transparent. The unusual electronic, mechanical and chemical properties of graphene at the molecular scale promise numerous applications.

The new technique might enable scientists to study other physical, chemical, and biological phenomena that take place in liquids on the nanometre scale, experts said.

"Their approach opens new domains of research in the physics and chemistry in the fluid phase in general," said Christian Colliex, from the Universite Paris Sud in France, who was not involved with the research.

Scientists say Graphene can help study liquids more clearly

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