University Of Sheffield Creates NMR Based Technique To Make Nanotechnology Study Non-Invasive

Nanotechnology is gaining importance with time and is used in various fields like harvesting solar energy, computing, communication developments or the medical areas. The technology is characterized by usage of little amount of matter, which brings out quantum behaviour in electrons and photons (A phenomenon usually different in bulk matters). Nanoengineering involves analysis of the nanoparticles, which results in invasion of the structure. As a result of present techniques, the nanostructure under study gets destroyed during experimentation which hampers the important link between structural and electronic/photonic properties.

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Researchers from University's Department of Physics and Astronomy (namely Dr Evgeny Chekhovich and Dr Alexander Tartakovskii) have developed a technique which is based on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) probing, to escape the destruction of nanoparticles during study. The researchers have added utmost sensitivity in the procedure to enhance NMR signals in nanostructures leading to a non-invasive analysis.

The technique has been tested on semiconductor quantum dots and it provided a whole new understanding of the nanomaterial, allowing to analyse chemical composition of the material and how atom alignment inside the dots deviates from that of a perfect crystal.

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