Berkeley Lab scientists have established a revolutionary nanocrystal-making robot, capable of producing nanocrystals with extreme precision. This one-of-a-kind robot provides colloidal nanocrystals with custom-made properties for electronics, biological labeling and luminescent devices.
This robotic engineer is named WANDA (Workstation for Automated Nanomaterial Discovery and Analysis) and was developed in collaboration with Symyx Technologies at the Molecular Foundry, a U.S. Department of Energy User Facility located at Berkeley Lab. By automating the synthesis of these nanocrystals, WANDA overcomes the issues facing traditional techniques, which can be laborious and are difficult to reproduce from one laboratory to the next. What's more, WANDA's synthetic prowess can help researchers sift through a large, diverse pool of materials for specific applications. Such a combinatorial approach has been used for decades in the pharmaceutical industry and now is being applied to nanomaterials at the Foundry.
WANDA makes nanocrystals of exceptional quality - every time - optimized for different applications. It can also be used to discover new nanocrystal compositions with advantageous properties.
WANDA's liquid-handling robotics prepares and initiates reactions by injecting nanocrystal precursor chemicals into an array of reactors. After a series of reactions is complete, the structural and optical properties of these nanocrystals can be screened rapidly, also using automated methods. WANDA is kept inside a nitrogen-filled chamber, designed to keep oxygen and water from interacting with reactive precursor chemicals and freshly formed nanocrystals. Since this robot is controlled by software protocols, novice users can direct WANDA to perform complex workflows that traditionally require extensive chemistry experience.
Scientists have directed WANDA to produce and optimize a diverse set of nanomaterials under conditions analogous to those employed in traditional flask-based chemistry. Starting with widely studied and practically useful nanomaterials; such as cadmium selenide quantum dots, whose size can be adjusted to emit different colors of visible light. Scientists showed how WANDA can optimize the size, crystal structure and luminescence properties of different nanocrystals.
Scientists are expecting a revolutionary change in the way nanoscience research is performed. Not only does WANDA enable the optimization and mass production of nanoparticles users need, but this robot also facilitates experiments that give us a deeper understanding into the chemistry and physics of nanoscale materials.
No comments:
Post a Comment