One atom thick carbon to be used for visualizing molecular structure

4 September 2010

Researchers at California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have developed an innovative technique for visualizing molecular structure.  Researchers used a single sheet of carbon layer for obtaining first direct image of the coating of water on the surface at room temperature. The technique can also suitably used for imaging other molecules including antibodies and other molecules.

Researchers find the molecular study very tough as all the surfaces have coating of water on them and because the water molecules being in constant flux, it takes enough long time in settling water molecule and therefore carrying out measurements. Heath, Professor of chemistry at Caltech and his colleagues developed a technique for pinning down the moving molecule under room temperature.

Researchers accidently saw some nanoscale island-shaped structures trapped in between graphene and mica while studying graphene on a flat surface of mica. Graphene, which should be one layer thick of carbon atom and it also, should be completely flat and layered onto a flat surface. To study the water molecule’s behavior, researchers deposited the graphene sheets at varying humidity levels.

The abnormal water layer were seen on the surfaces deposited under higher humidity, however there were not noticed in surfaces deposited under complete dry conditions. This study leads to the conclusion that the water molecules blanketed by graphene and by examining the details with atomic force microscopy the atomic structures of the molecules were revealed.

While studying water coats surfaces, researchers found that the first layer of water on mica is two molecular thick and its structure is of ice. Similarly upon this first two molecular thick layer another two molecular thick ice layer forms and finally on the top of these layers water droplets are formed. The outcome of the results can be utilized for studying a number of surface properties of the materials including adhesives, lubricants etc.

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