Tag: SPM cantilevers

In Situ Molecular-Level Observation of Methanol Catalysis at the Water–Graphite Interface

“Methanol occupies a central role in chemical synthesis and is considered an ideal candidate for cleaner fuel storage and transportation. It can be catalyzed from water and volatile organic compounds, such as carbon dioxide, thereby offering an attractive solution for reducing carbon emissions.”*

In “In Situ Molecular-Level Observation of Methanol Catalysis at the Water–Graphite Interface” the authors show that graphite immersed in ultrapure water is able to spontaneously catalyze methanol from volatile organic compounds in ambient conditions. Using single-molecule resolution atomic force microscopy (AFM) in liquid, they directly observe the formation and evolution of methanol–water nanostructures at the surface of graphite.*
The findings described in this article could have a significant impact on the development of organic catalysts and on the function of nanoscale carbon devices

NanoWorld ARROW-UHFAuD AFM probes were used for the Atomic Force Microscopy imaging in liquid.

Figure 1 from “In Situ Molecular-Level Observation of Methanol Catalysis at the Water–Graphite Interface” by W. Foster et al.: High-resolution amplitude modulation AFM imaging of HOPG immersed in initially ultrapure water. (a) A solid-like patch formed by the self-assembly of molecules (dashed white outline) nucleates from an atomic step at the HOPG surface (dashed black line). The molecular self-assembly is observed here in situ as it progressively grows across the HOPG surface over a period of 9 min, with the patch edges moving away from the step. Rowlike structures with a periodicity of 4.30 ± 0.28 nm as visible within the patch. (b) Sub-nanometer imaging of other structures reveals detailed features (0.79 ± 0.08 nm periodicity, red arrows) perpendicular to the main rows (periodicity 2.45 ± 0.08 nm, white arrow). The exact molecular arrangement is not known, but strongly reminiscent of the alternated water–methanol nanoribbons recently reported by our group.(22) The white scale bars are 100 nm in (a) and 1 nm in (b). The purple color scale bar represents a topographic variation of 20 Å in (a) and 1 Å nm in (b). The blue scale bar represents a phase variation of 20° in (a) and 10° in (b). In (a) the time lapse between the first and second frames is 1 min and then 4 min elapses between the subsequent frames. NanoWorld Arrow-UHFAuD AFM probes were used.
Figure 1 from “In Situ Molecular-Level Observation of Methanol Catalysis at the Water–Graphite Interface” by W. Foster et al.: High-resolution amplitude modulation AFM imaging of HOPG immersed in initially ultrapure water. (a) A solid-like patch formed by the self-assembly of molecules (dashed white outline) nucleates from an atomic step at the HOPG surface (dashed black line). The molecular self-assembly is observed here in situ as it progressively grows across the HOPG surface over a period of 9 min, with the patch edges moving away from the step. Rowlike structures with a periodicity of 4.30 ± 0.28 nm as visible within the patch. (b) Sub-nanometer imaging of other structures reveals detailed features (0.79 ± 0.08 nm periodicity, red arrows) perpendicular to the main rows (periodicity 2.45 ± 0.08 nm, white arrow). The exact molecular arrangement is not known, but strongly reminiscent of the alternated water–methanol nanoribbons recently reported by our group.(22) The white scale bars are 100 nm in (a) and 1 nm in (b). The purple color scale bar represents a topographic variation of 20 Å in (a) and 1 Å nm in (b). The blue scale bar represents a phase variation of 20° in (a) and 10° in (b). In (a) the time lapse between the first and second frames is 1 min and then 4 min elapses between the subsequent frames

*William Foster, Juan A. Aguilar, Halim Kusumaatmaja, Kislon Voϊtchovsky
In Situ Molecular-Level Observation of Methanol Catalysis at the Water–Graphite Interface
ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2018, 10 (40), pp 34265–34271
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.8b12113

Please follow this external link for the full article: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acsami.8b12113

Open Access The article “In Situ Molecular-Level Observation of Methanol Catalysis at the Water–Graphite Interface” by William Foster, Juan A. Aguilar, Halim Kusumaatmaja and Kislon Voϊtchovsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Meet our CEO at AVS 65th International Symposium and Exhibition

Are you visiting the 65th AVS International Symposium and Exhibition in Long Beach CA today? If yes, you might meet our CEO Manfred Detterbeck who is passing by as well.

NanoWorld CEO Manfred Detterbeck at AVS 65th AVS International Symposium and Exhibition at Long Beach CA NanoWorld AFM probes
NanoWorld CEO Manfred Detterbeck at AVS 65th AVS International Symposium and Exhibition at Long Beach CA

 

Long Beach Convention Center venue of the AVS 65th International Symposium and Exhibition
Long Beach Convention Center venue of the AVS 65th International Symposium and Exhibition

Mussel adhesion is dictated by time-regulated secretion and molecular conformation of mussel adhesive proteins

We have a month with “R” again and the shellfish season has started in the Northern Hemisphere. So we’d like to share the Nature Communications article by Petrone et. al “Mussel adhesion is dictated by time-regulated secretion and molecular conformation of mussel adhesive proteins” with you.
A NanoWorld Pointprobe® NCSTR AFM probe was used for the AFM images in this paper. This AFM probe is designed to give extra stability and accuracy during soft tapping mode imaging in order to produce higher quality AFM images while minimizing sample damage.

Supplementary Figure 16 from Petrone et. al "Mussel adhesion is dictated by time-regulated secretion and molecular conformation of mussel adhesive proteins": Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) of mussel adhesive proteins on mica. AFM images of dry Pvfp-3α and Pvfp-5β adsorbed from 0.02 mg ml-1 solution in 5% acetic acid and 0.25 MO3 on mica. After 20 min adsorption, the mica surfaces were washed with protein -free buffer, and the AFM images show the homogenous distribution of the resulting adsorbed proteins. The height profiles for both proteins are shown in the graphs below, corresponding to the dotted red and blue lines in the respective AFM images (see black arrows).
Supplementary Figure 16 from Petrone et. al “Mussel adhesion is dictated by time-regulated
secretion and molecular conformation of mussel adhesive proteins”:
Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) of mussel adhesive proteins on mica. AFM images of dry Pvfp-3α and Pvfp-5β adsorbed from 0.02 mg ml-1 solution in 5% acetic acid and 0.25 MO3 on mica. After 20 min adsorption, the mica surfaces were washed with protein -free buffer, and the AFM images show the homogenous distribution of the resulting adsorbed proteins. The height profiles for both proteins are shown in the graphs below, corresponding to the dotted red and blue lines in the respective AFM images (see black arrows).

Luigi Petrone, Akshita Kumar, Clarinda N. Sutanto, Navinkumar J. Patil, Srinivasaraghavan Kannan, Alagappan Palaniappan, Shahrouz Amini, Bruno Zappone, Chandra Verma, Ali Miserez
Mussel adhesion is dictated by time-regulated secretion and molecular conformation of mussel adhesive proteins
Nature Communications volume 6, Article number: 8737 (2015)
DOI https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9737

Please follow this external link for the full article: https://rdcu.be/5vcI

The article by Petrone, L.et al. “Mussel adhesion is dictated by time-regulated secretion and molecular conformation of mussel adhesive proteins” is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/