KINGSTON, R.I. – July 13, 2020 – Faculty at the University of Rhode Island have purchased two state-of-the-art scientific instruments valued at $2.8 million for engineering and oceanographic research. Funding for the equipment was primarily provided by the National Science Foundation.

The funding has allowed Chemical Engineering Professor Arijit Bose and several colleagues to purchase a $2.3 million scanning-transmission electron microscope for materials research, while Oceanography Professors Rebecca Robinson and Kelton McMahon have acquired a $500,000 customized gas chromatograph-isotope ratio mass spectrometer for isotopic analysis of nitrate and nitrous oxide.

The scanning-transmission electron microscope will enable Bose – along with professors Jodi Camberg, Vinka Craver, Brett Lucht and Jyothi Menon – to visualize and characterize a broad variety of materials in high-resolution at sub-nanoscales.

According to Bose, the structure of materials at the nanoscale plays an important role in how those materials behave, so it is particularly important to his research on extending the life of lithium ion batteries that he be able to see high-resolution images at the smallest possible scale.

“For example, we’ll be able to look at the very tiny particles that develop a solid-electrolyte interphase layer in lithium ion batteries,” Bose said. “One reason the batteries don’t last long is because the lithium gets irreversibly trapped in that layer, and without enough lithium, the battery’s capacity goes down. With this new microscope, we’ll be able to look at those layers to see how they develop.”

The instrument will also be equipped with a direct electron camera to capture images of evolving objects at nanoscale resolution or of objects like proteins that can be damaged easily if exposed for too long to an electron beam. It will also have electron energy loss spectroscopy and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy capabilities for analyzing the composition of a material.

“With all these capabilities, we will probably have an instrument that is fairly unique in the Northeast,” Bose said.

The researchers will also use the instrument for the development of high-resolution structures of cells, proteins and lipid particles; examining the spatial distribution of components of theranostic particles for diagnosing and treating lung diseases; evaluating interactions between biological materials and nanoparticles for effective water treatment; and examining the temporal evolution of precipitating particles in hard water to prevent scaling in hot water pipes.

With guidance from laboratory director Irene Andreu, the microscope will also be available for use by URI students, as well as by scientists from universities and companies around the region. It is being manufactured in Japan and should be delivered early next year.

The new gas chromatography-isotope ratio mass spectrometer that Robinson and McMahon are customizing will be three times more sensitive than the Graduate School of Oceanography’s current version, allowing for more precise measurements of nitrogen in the environment and providing for an expanded understanding of nitrogen biogeochemical cycles in the atmosphere and the ocean.

“Nitrate is a very common nutrient in the ocean, and this instrument can help tell us about the history of that nitrate – the microbial processes it’s undergone, who’s been using it in the ocean, the degree to which organisms have consumed it,” Robinson said. “We can look at the history of how biology has acted upon that pool of nitrate.”

She will also be able to analyze nitrogen in geologic samples like fossils to better understand the history of the marine environment.

“We can ask questions about what was happening when that fossil was living in the water column,” she said. “One of my students is examining microscopic fossils, and for her measurements she sometimes doesn’t have enough material to analyze. This more sensitive instrument should make her data better and expand the environments we can work in.”

In addition to Robinson, McMahon and their students, the instrument – which is being manufactured in Germany for delivery in late summer – will also be available for use by other scientists at URI and elsewhere in Rhode Island.