Scientists have grown metal crystal configurations that have never been seen before! These new configurations of crystal pour in promises in the field of biosensors, biological imaging, drug delivery and catalytic converters.
The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory scientists have crystallized cellulose fibers from cotton after appropriating them. The uniform size of the metal crystals must be between 2 and 200 nanometers, depending on the metal, Yongsoon Shin, a staff scientist at the Department of Energy laboratory in Richland, Wash reported.
He introduced this success on Monday at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society. Thanks to PNNL laboratory fellow Gregory Exarhos for leading the research.
Defining Shin’s experimental work, Exarhos said,
The first report of the efficacy of nanocrystalline cellulose templates in driving the formation of ordered metal and metal oxide nanoparticles at surfaces.
Exarhos has dubbed these cellulose nanocrystals as - ‘molecular factories.’
Photo Credit: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
