Nanotechnology Now

Our NanoNews Digest Sponsors
Heifer International



Home > Press > Beaming new light on life: From beetles to aircraft, nanoparticles aid microscope views

In this image, a tiny portion of a scale from a "photonic beetle" is viewed using a conventional fluorescence microscope. When blue or ultraviolet laser light is aimed at the scale, most of the light is absorbed, but some is re-emitted as fluorescence. Thus, the microscope sees only the surface contour of the scale. The brightest area in the upper right is the thickest part of the shell and emits the most light.

Credit: John Lupton, University of Utah.
In this image, a tiny portion of a scale from a "photonic beetle" is viewed using a conventional fluorescence microscope. When blue or ultraviolet laser light is aimed at the scale, most of the light is absorbed, but some is re-emitted as fluorescence. Thus, the microscope sees only the surface contour of the scale. The brightest area in the upper right is the thickest part of the shell and emits the most light.

Credit: John Lupton, University of Utah.

Abstract:
University of Utah physicists and chemists developed a new method that uses a mirror of tiny silver "nanoparticles" so microscopes can reveal the internal structure of nearly opaque biological materials like bone, tumor cells and the iridescent green scales of the so-called "photonic beetle."

Beaming new light on life: From beetles to aircraft, nanoparticles aid microscope views

Salt Lake City, UT | Posted on February 4th, 2009

The method also might be used for detecting fatigue in materials such as carbon-fiber plastics used to build the latest generation of aircraft fuselages, tails and wings, says John Lupton, an associate professor of physics and leader of the new study.

The study will be published online Feb. 5 and in the March 2009 issue of Nano Letters, the leading nanoscience journal of the American Chemical Society. Nanoscience is the study of ultrasmall materials, structures or devices on a molecular or atomic scale.

The researchers are seeking a patent on the new method.

Lupton conducted the new study with Michael Bartl, an assistant professor of chemistry; Debansu Chaudhuri, a postdoctoral researcher in physics; and graduate students Jeremy Galusha in chemistry and Manfred Walter and Nicholas Borys in physics.

From the invention of the optical microscope in the 17th century, microscopy has grown to the point where there are scores of different methods available.

In an optical microscope, white light is passed through a specimen to view it. But the method is limited in how much detail and contrast can be seen within the specimen.

Electron microscopes can view tiny structures, but they are expensive, not always readily available and cannot be used on all types of samples, Lupton says.

A widely used method is known as laser or fluorescence microscopy, in which a laser is used to make a specimen emit light, either because the specimen does so naturally or because it has been injected or "labeled" with fluorescent dye. The trouble is that such dyes - when excited by laser light - generate toxic chemicals that kill living cells.

"It would be much better to place the cell, without any labels, on top of metal nanoparticles and measure the transmission of light," Lupton says.

The new method developed by Lupton and colleagues is a variation of fluorescence microscopy, but involves using an infrared laser to excite clusters of silver nanoparticles placed below the sample being studied. The particles form "plasmonic hotspots," which act as beacons, shooting intensely focused white light upward through the overlying sample.

The spectrum or colors of transmitted light reveal information about the composition and structure of the substance examined.

The Photonic Beetle Meets the Microscope

Development of the new method began after Bartl, Galusha and others published a study last May revealing that a beetle from Brazil - a weevil named Lamprocyphus augustus - has shimmering green scales with an ideal "photonic crystal" structure.

Scientists thus far have been unable to build an ideal photonic crystal to manipulate visible light - something they say is necessary to develop ultrafast optical computers that would run on light instead of electricity.

Ideal photonic crystals also are sought as a way to make solar power cells more efficient, catalyze chemical reactions and generate tiny laser beams that would serve as light sources on optical computer chips.

But first, researchers want to know more about the naturally occurring photonic crystals within the beetle's scales.

"A normal light microscope generally won't do the trick," Lupton says, because visible light is easily scattered by the scales, thwarting efforts to view their internal structure.

"We found that we can put silver nanoparticles - a fancy word for a silver mirror - beneath the beetle," he adds. "When illuminated with very intense infrared light, the silver starts to emit white light, but only at very discrete positions on the mirror."

Those "beacons" of intense light were transmitted upward through the beetle scale, allowing scientists to view the scale's internal structure, including tiny differences in the angles of crystal "facets" or faces and the existence of vertical stacks of crystals invisible to other microscope methods.

To the untrained eye, an image created using silver nanoparticle beacons - say, the image of the photonic beetle's scale - looks like a blotchy bunch of spots.

But Lupton says that each of those spots contains a spectrum of colors that reveal information about the scale's internal structure because the light has interacted with that structure.

A New Tool for Biologists, Doctors and Maybe Materials Scientists

"There really does not appear to be any other useful technique to look at these natural photonic crystals microscopically," Lupton says. "The silver nanoparticle approach to microscopy potentially could be very versatile, allowing us to view other highly scattering samples such as tumor cells, bone samples or amorphous materials in general." Amorphous materials are those without a crystal structure.

While Lupton believes the new method will be of interest mainly to biologists, he also says it could be useful for materials science.

For example, silver nanoparticles could be embedded in the carbon-fiber plastic in modern aircraft. The integrity of the fuselage or other aircraft components could be inspected regularly by exciting the embedded particles with a laser, and measuring how much light from the particles is transmitted through the fuselage material. Changes in transmission of the light would indicate changes in the fuselage structure, a warning that closer inspections of fuselage integrity are required.

So why does the new method work?

Lupton says the structure within the beetle's scales scatters light very strongly, like driving through a snowstorm: "Once your windshield gets wet, headlights appear all fuzzy, and different features get mixed up."

Using the tiny silver nanoparticles as light sources to see crystal structure within the beetle's scale is like "peering through your smudged windshield at a tiny white spot," Lupton adds. "It would not appear smeared out."

####

For more information, please click here

Contacts:
University of Utah Public Relations
201 Presidents Circle, Room 308
Salt Lake City, Utah 84112-9017
(801) 581-6773 fax: (801) 585-3350

Lee Siegel

801-581-8993

Copyright © University of Utah

If you have a comment, please Contact us.

Issuers of news releases, not 7th Wave, Inc. or Nanotechnology Now, are solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.

Bookmark:
Delicious Digg Newsvine Google Yahoo Reddit Magnoliacom Furl Facebook

Related News Press

News and information

Researchers develop artificial building blocks of life March 8th, 2024

How surface roughness influences the adhesion of soft materials: Research team discovers universal mechanism that leads to adhesion hysteresis in soft materials March 8th, 2024

Two-dimensional bimetallic selenium-containing metal-organic frameworks and their calcinated derivatives as electrocatalysts for overall water splitting March 8th, 2024

Curcumin nanoemulsion is tested for treatment of intestinal inflammation: A formulation developed by Brazilian researchers proved effective in tests involving mice March 8th, 2024

Imaging

Nanoscale CL thermometry with lanthanide-doped heavy-metal oxide in TEM March 8th, 2024

First direct imaging of small noble gas clusters at room temperature: Novel opportunities in quantum technology and condensed matter physics opened by noble gas atoms confined between graphene layers January 12th, 2024

The USTC realizes In situ electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy using single nanodiamond sensors November 3rd, 2023

Observation of left and right at nanoscale with optical force October 6th, 2023

Announcements

What heat can tell us about battery chemistry: using the Peltier effect to study lithium-ion cells March 8th, 2024

Curcumin nanoemulsion is tested for treatment of intestinal inflammation: A formulation developed by Brazilian researchers proved effective in tests involving mice March 8th, 2024

The Access to Advanced Health Institute receives up to $12.7 million to develop novel nanoalum adjuvant formulation for better protection against tuberculosis and pandemic influenza March 8th, 2024

Nanoscale CL thermometry with lanthanide-doped heavy-metal oxide in TEM March 8th, 2024

Tools

First direct imaging of small noble gas clusters at room temperature: Novel opportunities in quantum technology and condensed matter physics opened by noble gas atoms confined between graphene layers January 12th, 2024

New laser setup probes metamaterial structures with ultrafast pulses: The technique could speed up the development of acoustic lenses, impact-resistant films, and other futuristic materials November 17th, 2023

Ferroelectrically modulate the Fermi level of graphene oxide to enhance SERS response November 3rd, 2023

The USTC realizes In situ electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy using single nanodiamond sensors November 3rd, 2023

Aerospace/Space

Under pressure - space exploration in our time: Advancing space exploration through diverse collaborations and ethical policies February 16th, 2024

Bridging light and electrons January 12th, 2024

New tools will help study quantum chemistry aboard the International Space Station: Rochester Professor Nicholas Bigelow helped develop experiments conducted at NASA’s Cold Atom Lab to probe the fundamental nature of the world around us November 17th, 2023

Manufacturing advances bring material back in vogue January 20th, 2023

NanoNews-Digest
The latest news from around the world, FREE




  Premium Products
NanoNews-Custom
Only the news you want to read!
 Learn More
NanoStrategies
Full-service, expert consulting
 Learn More











ASP
Nanotechnology Now Featured Books




NNN

The Hunger Project