The holiday season is now well underway even if this year, due to ongoing Covid-19 related travel restrictions, for many of us vacation equals staycation.
Our bodies may have to stay put for another summer, but our minds are free to wander wherever they would like. And, if you’re like me, you’ll no doubt enjoy taking some time out to read whilst you’re on holiday.
This month therefore we’re taking you on a mini-international tour of the latest in AFM research from around the world. Buckle in and settle down in your comfiest travel armchair as we delve into the five AFM papers from around the world…
SOUTH AFRICA
Image by Christine Sponchia
First stop is South Africa, the southernmost country on the African continent. The country has 11 different official languages and the world's first heart transplant was completed in Cape Town, South Africa.
Renowned for its varied topography, great natural beauty, and cultural diversity, South Africa was also the birthplace of Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid revolutionary, statesman and philanthropist who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999.
Manoko Maubane-Nkdimeng et al. from the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, recently published their research on Microwave assisted synthesis of nitrogen doped and oxygen functionalized carbon nano onions supported palladium nanoparticles as hybrid anodic electrocatalysts for direct alkaline ethanol fuel cells (2021) International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 46 (18) 10862-10875
Dr Maubane-Nkdimeng and her team are doing important work in the area of solar power, in particular studying alternative cheap nanomaterials that can be incorporated into a solar cell without compromising its stability and efficiency.
CHILE
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Chile situated along the western seaboard of South America, is a long narrow country and happens to be the best place on earth for stargazing. The Atacama Desert in northern Chile is the highest and driest desert in the world, meaning there's less humidity and better visibility. Chile is also the world's narrowest country (less than 40 miles across at the narrowest point) and is called the 'pais del poetas', the country of poets, by its residents, being as it is the birthplace of two Nobel Prize for Literature winners – the poets and writers Gabriela Mistral and Pablo Neruda.
Sebastian Aguayo & Christina M. A. P. Schuh et al. published their research in 2020 on Type I collagen hydrogels as a delivery matrix for royal jelly derived extracellular vesicles (2020) Drug Delivery 27 (1) 1308-1318
Aguayo and Schuh’s work examines the use of collagen gels for the reliable, reproducible release system to deliver extracellular vesicles wound healing therapies in as part of work led by the Centro de Medicina Regenerativa, Clínica Alemana Universidad del Desarrollo, Chile.
RUSSIA
Image by Peter H
Russia is the largest country in the world, occupying one-tenth of all the land on Earth. Spanning 11 time zones across two continents (Europe and Asia) as well as having coasts on three oceans (the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic) it is fair to say the country is vast. If you’re visiting and plan on giving your host a bunch of flowers you might want to count them first: You should always make sure you give them in odd numbers, unless going to a funeral, when even numbers are the rule…
Stevenson et al. examined Solid-electrolyte interphase nucleation and growth on carbonaceous negative electrodes for Li-ion batteries visualized with in situ atomic force microscopy (2020) Sci Rep 10 8550
Dr Sergey Luchkin, as part of Professor Keith Stevenson’s group at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Moscow, Russia, has been working on the development of in situ electrochemical scanning probe microscopy for characterization of energy storage materials. As outlined in this paper the team were able to demonstrate an easy methodology that utilises AFM in-situ to measure a passivation layer called solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) critical to Li-ion battery performance and life cycle.
CHINA
Image by Silentpilot
China is known for its architectural wonders such as the Great Wall and Forbidden City, its staggering variety of delicious food, its martial arts, and its long history of invention. It is also believed to have had the world’s longest continuous civilization with Chinese being the longest continuously used language in the world.
The world’s first decimal system was in use in China from the 14th century BC - around 2,300 years before it was first used by mathematicians in Europe. The symbol and use of zero was another first for China.
Wenqing Zhang et al’s latest paper, published in June, demonstrates the Development of a bioactive chitosan HPMC-based membrane with tea polyphenols encapsulated in β-cyclodextrin as an effective enhancement (2021) Materials Today Communications 27 102324
Professor Zhang, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, and her team obtained and characterized a novel biodegradable membrane of chitosan/HPMC containing polyphenols encapsulated composite and demonstrated obviously increased antibacterial activities.
JAPAN
Image by Masahi Wakui
Japan is known worldwide for its traditional arts, including tea ceremonies, calligraphy and flower arranging. The country has a legacy of distinctive gardens, sculpture and poetry. What you may not know is that it is also home to the world’s oldest company, Kongo Gumi, which was established in 578 and specialising in the construction of temples and shrines.
At the other end of the scale you’ll find 1 vending machine for every 24 people in the country - stocking pretty much anything you can (and lots you won't) think about. And did you know nearly half the zips worldwide are made in Japan? Look out for the YKK letters on your zipper - they stand for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha who are estimated to produce around 7 billion zippers a year!
For our final paper we turn to the Air Liquide Laboratories and the work done between their researchers in New Jersey, USA, Seoul, Korea and Tokyo, Japan.
Christian Dussarrat, Fine Chemistry & Applications Scientific Director, Air Liquide Laboratories have been researching the Thermal Atomic Layer Deposition of Yttrium Oxide Films and Their Properties in Anticorrosion and Water Repellent Coating Applications (2021) Coatings 11 (5) 497
Their research identified that there are a considerable number of applications for yttrium oxide thin films across various industries. Specifically, the films showed strong resistance to fluorine-containing plasma, outperforming other etch-resistant materials, such as silicon oxide, silicon nitride and alumina, behaving comparably to yttrium fluoride. Such described Y2O3 ALD films are thus promising candidates for potential applications in the field of anticorrosive coatings.
We hope you’ve enjoyed your tour of some of the latest research using AFM coming out of different locations around the world. Of course there’s so much more to be read and share. As ever, we’d love to hear from you if there are areas and AFM related research that you feel aren’t getting enough coverage. Let’s champion together the very best of the work happening in the AFM community wherever in the world it is happening!