MRI: Track 1 Acquisition of a NanoRaman and Scanning Probe Microscopy Hybrid System for Materials Characterization

This Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) award supports the purchase of a state-of-the-art Raman technology (NanoRaman) integrated with scanning probe microscopy, tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy, and tip-enhanced photoluminescence spectroscopy to advance nanotechnology research, training, and education activities at Kansas State University and other universities in the region. Knowledge of a nanomaterial's size, shape, morphology, composition, and purity is the necessary first step for understanding its properties and performance in any given application. With the system's superior spectral and spatial resolution and the integrated platform that supports simultaneous or sequential acquisition of microscopic and spectroscopic data, it is a highly versatile tool for physical and chemical imaging at the nanoscale. The system will transform researchers' ability to study and control the properties of materials critical to a broad range of applications such as biosensing, energy generation and storage, wastewater treatment, composites, food safety, electronics, defense against chemical and biological warfare, thermal control, and nanophotonics. The system will serve over 80 individuals (students, postdocs, and faculty) in research and educational training programs. Access to a robust hybrid system that provides correlated morphological and chemical fingerprint data on the same spatial-temporal platform, from microscale down to nanoscale resolution, is critically important for supporting current and future research in Kansas. The major research projects that will use this system are at the forefront of research in the fields of energy science, nanotechnology, materials science, biotechnology, medical science, and food science. Specifically, the system will dramatically improve the ability to study materials such as nanocarbons (carbon nanotubes and graphene), catalysts, electrodes, polymeric membranes, films, semiconductors, nanoenergetic materials, ceramics, metamaterials, and biomaterials. Selected research in these areas includes investigating (1) properties of individual single-wall carbon nanotubes, (2) edge and flat-surface sites of graphene, (3) spatial resolution and identification of the oxygen moieties of graphene and heteroatom dopants at the nanometer scale, (4) microorganisms-substrate interfacial properties, (5) structural and compositional properties of hexagonal boron nitride, (6) automated microscopic mapping down to 50-nm step size, and (7) photonic and plasmonic properties of graphene and carbon nanotubes. The high resolution of the NanoRaman, coupled with its high level of automation and high throughput, will enable researchers to acquire rapid, timely, and high-quality data that will unveil important correlations. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.