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SNU-Hanyang University Research Team Develops a Platform for Observing Atomic Unit Level Chemical Reactions in Real-Time

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    2020.10.28

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SNU-Hanyang University Research Team Develops a Platform for Observing Atomic Unit Level Chemical Reactions in Real-Time
 

- Analysis of nanoparticles that are 1/10th the size of the corona virus
-Useful for statistical analysis of atomic-level chemical reactions, such as for protein structures



From left Professor Jung Won Park of SNU, Professor Won Chul Lee of Hanyang University
 
A joint research team led by Professor Jung Won Park of the SNU Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Professor Won Chul Lee Hanyang University's Department of Mechanical Engineering (ERIKA), succeeded in developing a honeycomb structure platform that allows direct observation of chemical reactions in liquids at the atomic level. It is the world's first research to have developed technologies that can be used to study reaction mechanisms, protein structures, next-generation fuel cells, and catalytic reactions of viruses such as Corona 19.
 
The latest analysis technology, Real-Time Liquid Transmission Electron Microscopy, is an analysis method that puts a trace amount of liquid specimen in a liquid cell, a specialized container, and observes it with a transmission electron microscope. In order to understand complex chemical reactions, it is necessary to observe the same reaction environment repeatedly, which was limited to being achieved using the conventional liquid cell systems.
 
Thus, the joint research team succeeded in creating more than 10 million liquid cells arranged in honeycomb structures by inserting an anodized aluminum film, a porous substance, between two graphenes. Using the developed liquid cell, the structure of fine nanoparticles, which are about one-tenth smaller in size than the corona virus, was analyzed, and the chemical reactions occurring at the atomic level were statistically analyzed in real-time by the observation of their fluid motion and reaction mechanism.


 

A summary diagram of research achievements published in the journal 'Advanced Materials'. The Liquid Observation Platform developed by the research team
 
"This study has made it possible to secure large amounts of data by observing chemical reactions in real time, and thus to analyze the properties of nanomaterials statistically," said the research team. "It will help identify micro-particle structures and operating mechanisms of microparticles like the virus of COVID-19 and help with the development of vaccines and new drugs through continuous development of high-resolution real-time imaging technologies."
 
This research was conducted with the support of the Bionic Arm Mechatronics Convergence Technology Development Project, Hydrogen Energy Innovation Technology Development Project, Leading Research Center Project and Samsung Science and Technology Foundation of the Ministry of Science and ICT, and was posted online in the August 26 issue of 'Advanced Materials', a world-renowned journal in the field of materials.