New Kind of 'X-ray/CT Vision' Reveals Objects' Internal Nanoscale Structure, Chemistry

Nanomaterials made of particles with dimensions measured in billionths of a meter hold enormous promise for creating more efficient batteries, fuel cells, catalysts, and drug-delivery systems. Seeing how the nanostructured materials inside these devices evolve and interact as they operate is essential to gain insight into ways to optimize performance. But most studies have looked at idealized samples of isolated components, not as they function in operating devices.

Now a group of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science has developed a new kind of "x-ray vision" -- a way to peer inside real-world devices to map the internal nanostructures and properties of the various components, and even monitor how properties evolve as the devices operate. The novel dual imaging method described in Nature Communications, September 30, 2013, combines high-intensity x-rays for discerning nanoscale structures with cross-sectional "slices" of the device to pinpoint the precise location of the nanostructured components. It opens new opportunities for advances in a wide range of research disciplines from materials science to biomaterials, geology, environmental science, and health.