Molecular Analysis and Synthesis of Surfaces: ScotMASS

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Molecular Analysis and Synthesis of Surfaces: A Scottish Facility

Welcome to the ScotMASS Homepage

Molecular analysis and synthesis of surfaces plays an increasingly important role in modern research in science and engineering. It is clear that state-of-the-art facilities for such analysis are lacking on a national scale in Scotland. This is at a time when it is becoming increasingly clear that to fully understand the behaviour of materials in a wide range of applications' environments demands an increasingly detailed knowledge of the molecular composition and structure of surfaces. To then tailor such materials to optimise their properties within specific applications' environments demands novel surface synthesis and modification tools. A facility for the molecular analysis and synthesis of surfaces for Scotland (ScotMASS) would address these issues and provide Scotland with a world-class resource in the molecular characterisation of surfaces, their synthesis and modification.

Much of the most interesting of modern science occurs at the interfaces between solids and other phases. One can highlight a number of areas where such surface interactions are important:

(Bio)Analytical Science

  • Development of (bio)molecular sensors and sensor arrays
  • Controlled modification of surface properties for microfluidics and lab-on-a-chip applications
  • Molecular imaging of tissues in medical diagnosis

    Biomedical Materials

  • Development of controlled release materials for medication
  • Surface engineering of medical implants to reduce or increase cell adhesion for increased compatibility
  • Tissue engineering scaffold materials optimization

    Energy Production and Storage

  • Fuel cell electrode engineering
  • Development and characterisation of novel hydrogen storage and carbon dioxide sequestration media
  • Carbon materials modification for tokomak plasma applications

    Molecular Electronics and Bioelectronics

  • Development of (bio)organic devices and their integration into traditional semiconductor electronic systems
  • Development and characterisation of polymer electronic materials and systems

    Nanoscience

  • Characterisation and surface modification of nanoparticle deposits on surfaces
  • Nanostructured substrates for catalysis and other applications

    The future economic prosperity of Scotland will depend on our current scientific investment and success in these and related areas. Many of these areas are well represented within the science and engineering research community in Scotland. A detailed understanding of the molecular composition and structure of surfaces necessarily underpins the science in all of these areas. This understanding can only come through the application of state-of-the-art surface analytical methods. Indeed the recent International Review of Physics in the UK highlighted the importance of such surface analytical techniques to the future of nanoscience in the UK. It also highlighted the lack of such facilities. Scotland is blessed with a number of existing and proposed facilities in materials and surface science that are amongst the best in the UK (e.g. the Kelvin Nanocharacterisation Facility at Glasgow, the Paisley Thin Film Centre, COSMIC and SIRCAMS at Edinburgh and the proposed St. Andrews Centre for Surface Spectroscopy). These facilities, however, are for the most part focused on inorganic materials, atomic resolution imaging and spectroscopy or electron spectroscopies. In contrast, national facilities aimed at the molecular characterisation and modification of surfaces are much more limited.

    ScotMASS seeks to address this issue by providing state-of-the-art instrumentation for:

    Molecular Surface Synthesis under Controlled Conditions

  • By chemical and physical vapour deposition (CVD/PVD)
  • By cluster beam deposition
  • By electrospray deposition
  • By IR laser-assisted deposition of organic molecules
  • By liquid phase surface synthesis in controlled environments
  • By low pressure plasma surface interactions

    Surface Analysis and Imaging on the Micron Scale in vacuo

  • By time of flight SIMS
  • By XPS/AES
  • By Laser-based Mass Spectrometric Methods
  • By Photon-based Vibrational Microspectroscopies (IR and Raman)

    Analysis and Imaging on the Micron Scale in air

  • By Laser-based Mass Spectrometric Methods
  • By Photon-based Vibrational Microspectroscopies (IR and Raman)

    and by developing novel new MS-based tools for the molecular analysis and imaging of surfaces in the ambient air environment e.g. desorption electrospray ionisation (DESI) and plasma-assisted desorption ionsation (PADI) imaging. ScotMASS will seek to offer users rapid turn around of samples prepared in the users' own laboratory with sample transport either in air or in vacuo. ScotMASS would also aim to produce, in collaboration with users, molecularly tailored surfaces for specific applications in the users' own laboratory with a known composition and structure. This could, of course, be coupled with custom prior sample preparation (e.g. to nanostructure an inorganic surface) or post-analysis (e.g. STS/IETS) at the users' own facilities or other facilities across Scotland.

    The combination of resources proposed for ScotMASS will provide the tools that Scottish science needs to compete at the frontiers of international science and technology. While the focus of this proposed facility is primarily university-based research, there is a growing high technology SME sector based in and around the universities of Scotland that could also make profitable use of these facilities and into which ScotMASS would profitably move. In developing this proposal, these SMEs and other industrial concerns must be encouraged to lend their support.

    The progress of this proposal depends on the users. The justification for it must come from those working on materials applications in the biological and physical sciences and engineering where the molecular structure and composition of the material's surface is key to solving the scientific and engineering problem. So if there are tools that would prove valuable in such work but which are not considered above, it may be appropriate to consider their inclusion.

    What should you do now?

    1. If you are interested in the possibilities offered by ScotMASS, please send an email to Professor Martin McCoustra (m.r.s.mcoustra@hw.ac.uk). In that message indicate what you might like to use this facility for and how it would benefit your research. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them.
    2. Pass the email on to colleagues who may not have received it but who may have research interests that would benefit from the proposed resources.
    3. If you are aware of any SMEs or other industrial concerns in Scotland who would find the proposed resources valuable and may be prepared to support their development, please feel free to pass this message on to them with a request to get in touch.

    These Pages were last updated by John Thrower (email: jdt5@hw.ac.uk) on 24/01/2007