2023-09-01 10:00:03
A discovery in the field of nanofluids it could shake up our understanding of molecular behavior on the tiniest scales. Researchers from the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (EPFL, in Switzerland) and the University of Manchester (United Kingdom) have revealed a hitherto hidden world using the fluorescent properties new discoveries of a 2D material similar to graphene: the nitruro de boro.
The team presents this week in the magazine Nature Materials an innovative method that allows trace individual molecules within nanofluidic structuresilluminating his demeanor like never before.
The new method makes it possible to trace individual molecules within nanofluidic structures, illuminating their behavior like never before.
The nanofluidics, the study of fluids confined in ultra-small spaces, allows us to understand how liquids behave at the nanometer scale. However, exploring the movement of individual molecules in such small environments has been challenging due to the very limitations of microscopy techniques conventional. This obstacle prevented detection and real-time imaging, leaving significant gaps in the knowledge of confined molecular properties.
But thanks to an unexpected property of nitruro de boro, the authors have achieved what was previously thought impossible. This 2D material has a remarkable ability to emit light when in contact with liquidsand taking advantage of this property is how it has been possible to directly observe and trace the trajectories of individual molecules within nanofluidic structures.
New way to delve into nanofluids
According to the researchers, this breakthrough opens the door to a deeper understanding of the behaviors of ions and other substances in conditions that mimic biological systems.
The teacher Aleksandra RadenovicDirector of EPFL’s Laboratory for Nanoscale Biology, explains: “Advances in fabrication and materials science have enabled us to control fluid and ion transport at the nanoscale. However, our understanding of nanofluidic systems remained uncertain.” limited, as conventional light microscopy could not penetrate structures below the so-called diffraction limit. Now our research sheds light and offers insight into a hitherto unexplored field.”
Our research sheds light and offers insight into a hitherto unexplored field
Aleksandra Radenovic (EPFL)
This new knowledge of molecular properties has interesting applicationssuch as the possibility of direct imaging of emerging nanofluidic systems, in which liquids display unconventional behaviors under stress or pressure stimuli.
Boron nitride monophoton emitters
Specifically, the research focuses on the fluorescence originated by single photon emitters on a surface of nitro de boro hexagonal. “This activation of fluorescence arose unexpectedly, since neither that nitride nor the liquid itself fluoresces in the visible range. It is most likely due to the interaction of the molecules with the crystal surface defectsbut we still don’t know what the exact mechanism is,” explains co-author Nathan Ronceray del EPFL.
The interaction of molecules with surface defects in the crystalline structure can generate fluorescence. When a defect is turned off, the neighbor is turned on by jumping the molecule, allowing you to follow its trajectory
Surface defects can be missing atoms in the crystal structure, whose properties differ from the original material, which gives them the ability to emit light when they interact with certain molecules. The researchers further observed that when a defect turns off, one of its neighbors lights up, because the molecule bound to the first site jumps to the second. Step by step, this allows to reconstruct complete molecular pathways.
Through a combination of microscopy techniques, the team monitored the color changes and showed that these light emitters release photons one at a time, providing precise information about their immediate surroundings to a space of around one nanometer. This advance allows these emitters to be used as nanoscale probesshedding light on the arrangement of molecules in confined nanometer spaces.
The light emitters release photons one at a time, providing precise information about their surroundings within a nanometer.
On the other hand, the group of professor Radha Boya, from the Manchester Physics department, produced the nanocanales from two-dimensional materials, confining liquids to a few nanometers from the surface of the hexagonal boron nitride. This collaboration made it possible to optically test these systems and discover clues to fluid ordering induced by confinement.
“Seeing is believing, but it’s not easy to observe the effects of confinement at this scale. We make these extremely fine slit-shaped channels, and the current study shows an elegant way to visualize them using super-resolution microscopy,” Boya said.
Seeing is believing, but it is not easy to observe the effects of confinement on this scale. We make these channels extremely fine, and the study shows an elegant way to visualize them with super-resolution microscopy.
Radha Boya (University of Manchester)
The potential of this discovery is powerful, according to the authors. Ronceray even foresees applications beyond passive detection: “We have mainly been observing the behavior of molecules with the nitride without actively interacting, but we think it could be used to visualize nanoscale flows caused by pressure or electric fields.”
This could lead to more dynamic applications in the future for new optical imaging and detection systemsproviding unprecedented insight into the intricate behaviors of molecules within these confined spaces.
Reference:
“Liquid-activated quantum emission from pristine hexagonal boron nitride for nanofluidic sensing”. Nature Materials2023
Rights: Creative Commons.
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