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In Situ Atomic-Scale Study provides new insights into crystal nucleation and growth mechanisms

Junjie Li and Francis Leonard Deepak from the AEMIS Department along with Zhongchang Wang – QMST Department in collaboration with international researchers have carried out In situ atomic-scale studies to clarify nucleation and growth mechanisms of nanocrystals. Understanding nucleation and growth at the atomic scale is of great interest to scientists in many disciplines. However, fulfilling direct atomic-scale observation is still a significant challenge. In their recently reported study in the leading international journal Advanced Science using Bi as a model system, they employed electron beam irradiation within an aberration-corrected TEM to unveil the non-classical mechanism of crystal nucleation and growth. These findings are expected to help advance the general understanding of the dynamic process of nucleation of materials and phase transformations at the atomic scale.

PhD’s students from INL awarded at the 40th International Conference on Environmental & Food Monitoring

INLers Soraia Fernandes and Monisha Elumalai were awarded at the 40th International Conferences on Environmental & Food Monitoring, held this month in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Soraia Fernandes, a PhD student, working with our Nanochemistry and Water Quality Research Groups, won the “Roland W. Frei” Poster Award for “Novel magnetic covalent organic framework composites for the absorption of diarrheic shellfish poisoning toxins.” Monisha Elumalai, a PhD students, working with INL’s Food Quality and Safety Research Group, won the best young researcher oral presentation by the ISEAC-40 organisation for “Early detection of zebra mussel assisted by modified gold nanoparticle amplification”. Congratulations to both, it is with great pride that we testimony INLers achievements!

Plug and play anisotropy-based nanothermometers

The Ultrafast Bio and Nanophotonics group have developed a novel Plug and Play Nanothermosensor technology with relevance for molecular biochemistry at INL, led by J. Nieder and international collaborators. The novel technique allows a new level of access to measure temperate at the molecular scale. Read the full article in ACS Photonics.

Little scientists share their experiences at INL

INL and the University of Minho, partners of “Try to Share” Project, developed by Biblioteca Escolar Porto Maia da EB2,3 of Real, aims to allow children to build scientific experiments and lab activities based on the scientific method, defining objectives, material, procedures and conclusions of each experiment. After one year of hard work, 110 small scientists from Real School Grouping set up a conference in the INL garden – Outdoor Lab – where they presented posters, made scientific demonstrations and answered questions from the audience. To finish the day, the little scientists plant a tree in INL’s garden to symbolise a seed for education. This event was also scheduled for the World Humanist Day to celebrate the first year of the project.

CLIB students win entrepreneurship competition with INL support

A team of students from CLIB – Colégio Luso Internacional de Braga recently won the 11th National Competition, promoted by Junior Achievement Portugal, the Portuguese chapter of the oldest organization in the world promoting education for entrepreneurship. The five 10th graders – four girls and one boy -, mentored by INLer João Piteira, will represent Portugal in the European Competition, that will take place next 16th to 19th of July in Belgrade, Serbia, with the mini-company “Extinctus Enterprise”. This project was inspired by the response to the tragic forest fires that hit Portugal in 2017. The technology prototype, developed with INL support, is an underground Ignis Capsule containing a radio, a battery and a temperature sensor. In case of fire, it detects the heat and sends a signal to firefighters. Another CLIB team – also from the 10th grade – mentored by INLers Dmitri Petrovykh, Cláudia Sousa and Eurico Moreira, got the second place in the same competition with the SOS – Seniors On Surveillance project, for developing the concept of a high-tech Safelet bracelet equipped with alert buttons and sensors to promote independence, autonomy and safety for senior citizens. In addition to the technical mentoring, INLer Francisco Guimarães helped […]

Covalent organic frameworks capture pharmaceutical pollutants from water

A team of scientists from the Nanochemistry and Water Quality groups at INL, CRSTRA in Algeria, LMU in Germany, and GalChimia in Spain have developed a fluorine-bearing covalent organic framework (COF), and showed, for the first time, that this class of materials can be used to capture pharmaceutical pollutants from water. Lipophilic pharmaceuticals, such as ibuprofen, were adsorbed from the water with high efficiency and completely recovered by simple solvent exchange. As opposed to many other adsorbents such as activated carbon, the developed COF can be efficiently recycled for reuse. Read the full article in Chemistry-A European Journal.

Exploring two dimensional magnets with quantum tunnelling

A team of scientist from MIT, NIMS in Japan, Iowa State University and INL, have fabricated a new type of magnetic tunnel junctions where the tunnel barrier is made of a newly discovered two-dimensional magnet. This permits them to probe the magnetic properties of this new material and unveil unknown aspects of its magnetic behaviour. In addition, the devices present a very large magnetoresistance, the variation of electrical resistance upon application of magnetic fields, that forms the basis to many applications. J. Fernández-Rossier, from INL, said that “these experiments, take advantage of electron tunnelling across these magnetic materials to explore magnons”. These findings have been reported in the prestigious journal Science, edited by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, on May 3, 2018. Read the full article here.

INL Researcher Marta Prado interview to “Faro de Vigo”

An interview of Marta Prado (Food Quality and Safety Research Group leader) was published by Faro de Vigo, the main newspaper of Vigo (Spain) and one of the most important newspapers in Galicia, last Sunday, May 20th. The article is part of a series of interviews with Galicians working on prominent institutions abroad. Marta talked about her career and the work of her research group with interesting applications for the food industry. She highlighted the impact that research made at INL can have on society, the international nature of INL and the importance of articulating research in nanotechnology for society and industry. Marta Prado also mentioned the different programs running at INL for artistic residences, school visits, the Scientific Social Responsibility initiative “Mission Nerd” and INL as a startup incubator among others. Read the interview here.

Nature Communications: Sodium enhances indium-gallium interdiffusion in copper indium gallium diselenide photovoltaic absorbers

Research led by the University of Luxembourg investigated the manufacturing process of solar cells. The researchers proved that assumptions on chemical processes that were commonplace among researchers and producers for the past 20 years are, in fact, inaccurate. The physicists, among them Diego Colombara from INL, published their findings in the renowned scientific journal Nature Communications. Read the full article here.

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