April 22, 2013 –
Insect Leg
Five micrographs taken on scanning electron microscopes in the CALIT2 Microscopy Lab were named winners in an SEM image and data competition sponsored by LEXI – the Laboratory for Electron and X-ray Instrumentation.
The research behind one image, which depicts a bed bug leg on the surface of a kidney bean leaf, also attracted national media attention after it was published online in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.
The micrograph, called Insect Leg, was taken by chemistry graduate student Megan W. Szyndler on the FEI Quanta 3D scanning electron microscope. It shows the bed bug leg – enlarged 400 times – trapped by the leaf’s microscopic hairs.
The Quanta 3D allows the introduction of water into a chamber, which elevates the pressure and preserves the sample’s natural state by preventing it from drying out.
Szyndler and her UCI collaborators, entomologist Catherine Loudon and chemist Robert Corn, along with University of Kentucky researchers, are developing materials that can mimic the leaves’ geometry. Their research results were reported by Scientific American, the New York Times, National Geographic, Popular Science, the Los Angeles Times and a host of other media outlets.
Shrink Polymer
Polymer Film
Other winners in the LEXI contest were:
Shrink Polymer, taken by Jon Pegan on the FEI Quanta 3D. The image shows a polymer film with electrodes fabricated by evaporating gold onto the surface and patterned using a combination of photolithography and wet etching. The sample was then heated to 160°C, shrinking the polymer and forming the complex, high surface-area wrinkled topology. (Pegan’s collaborators: Michelle Khine and Mark Bachman.)
Polymer Film, taken by Himanshu Sharma on the FEI Magellan 400, the lab’s highest resolution SEM. Thin layers of nickel and gold were deposited onto a pre-stressed thermoplastic polymer called polyolefin, then placed into a convection oven. The polymer contracted by 95 percent in area, causing the metal to buckle and generating wrinkles and gaps of various sizes and shapes. (False color was added to the image. Collaborator: Michelle Khine)
Thermally Grown Oxide
Thermally Grown Oxide, taken by Matthew Sullivan on the FEI Magellan 400. A metal alloy used as a thermal barrier coating component in turbine engine blades was oxidized at 1125°C, in atmospheric conditions that simulate the combustion environment of an alternative fuel being considered by the U.S. Navy.
A backscatter electron detector displays the material’s atomic number contrast – nickel oxide crystals are seen in light gray and aluminum oxide crystals are dark gray. (Collaborator: Daniel Mumm.)
Glass Melted on Mullite, by Çagan Berker, was also taken on the FEI Magellan 400. A glass comprised of calcium, magnesium, aluminum and silicon was poured into a hole drilled in mullite, then heated to 1300°C to determine its reactivity with the substrate.
Glass Melted on Mullite
The x-rays emitted by the specimen when subjected to the electron beam were captured by an Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) detector and used to form individual- and mixed-element maps. The site-specific concentration of each element can be tracked, providing clues about the nature of new phase formation. (Collaborators: Matthew Sullivan and Daniel Mumm.)
Each winner was awarded $75 towards purchasing a textbook on either microscopy or x-ray diffraction.
— Anna Lynn Spitzer
