Always looking for resident
Undergrads
to work on research projects.
Prefer ChE; will consider ME, EE,
Materials, Physics, Chemistry, Math/CS double majors, and others with appropriate
background and/or training.
Will consider senior design projects;
Occasional paid positions.
Contact Prof. D.E. Aston by e-mail at aston@uidaho.edu
Other projects include: Growth
and Mechanics of Nanosprings and Nanowires; Environmental Nano/Microsensors
Funded by the W.M. Keck Foundation
Science and Engineering Grant, and the National Science Foundation
This and related projects are collaborations within highly interdisciplinary teams of undergraduates, graduates, postdocs, and professors from physics, chemistry, chemical, mechanical and materials engineering at the University of Idaho, Washington State, Idaho State, and Boise State Universities.
ARG (Aston Research Group):
Student developed research webpage
{Last additions made 30 Jun 2008}
Our newest and most functional instrumentation lab will be brought on-line late this spring, housed in the Department of Chemical Engineering. Instrument acquisition made possible by NSF MRI Grant DMR-0619310. (The spectroscopy capabilities will initially include two excitation lasers in the green and NIR wavelengths, optimized for autofluorescing specimens.)
WITec's Alpha300 SNOM
The integrated version at UI is somewhat different from the image shown;
see below.
BEL 341 Improvement - Making Old Lab Space New Again!
Here's the beginning of the mess that was "cleaned up"
for placement of our Alpha300 with SNOM, AFM, DPFM and Confocal Raman.
Here's the new SNOM/AFM/Confocal Raman system, providing
up to diffraction-limited imaging and Raman spectroscopy in air, water
and standard oil immersion regimes, using "white" LED for bright-field
imaging or one of two lasers for confocal fluorescence and Raman mapping
- 532 nm or 785 nm. Heating stage provides AFM samples studies up to 250
deg C and water immersion objective allows scanning in aqueous environments.
Digital Pulsed Force Mode (DPFM) extends the force spectroscopy beyond
standard AFM capabilities.
BEL 339 - Atomic Force Microscopy for Nanomechanics
The Nano-R AFM (Pacific Nanotechnology, Inc.) is combined
with WITec's Digital Pulsed Force Mode (DPFM) unit to provide spacial mapping
(<10 nm) capabilities of surface properties, such as elasticity, adhesion,
and long-range interactions that can be quantified with careful calibration.
BEL 339 - Ultramicroscopy and Differential Interference
Contrast for Metallurgical and Other Imaging
The Olympus upright BX51 microscope offers the highest
optical resolution (~250 nm) for ambient studies of bright and dark fields,
fluorescence, polarization and differential interference contrast (DIC)
with digital image capture and long-time exposure. Halogen and mercury
lamps are standard illumination.
BEL 218 - Electrical Probe Station and Source-Measure
Units
The Keithley 4200 with 4 independent sourcing and/or
measuring units for DC current and voltage is connected to a microscope
station with four micromanipulators for contacting to circuits, devices,
and materials under test. This lab is being reorganized to include the
new PAR VersaSTAT3-400 for electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS).
Gauss-Johnson 11 - Inverted Optical Microscopy for
Microfluidics & Sensors
The Olympus IX71 is equipped for fluorescence imaging,
digital video capture for particle and dye tracking, and UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy
(~250-1100 nm) with a Princeton PIXIS 256E spectral detector and Acton
MicroSpec 2150i monochromator. The system has been setup with fluid port
microinjectors and a syringe pump to run microfluidic experiments. Finally,
a voltage-current source-meter is attached to the microports or external
electrodes d
Gauss-Johnson 13D - Langmuir-Blodgett system from
KSV
Facilitates multilayer, monolayer, and submonolayer deposition
of molecules and colloidal materials on substrates up to 4" in diameter
or width with a standard electrobalance for measuring and monitoring the
forces of interfacial tension imposed on the dipping surface.
“Electrical and Thermomechanical
Testing of Single Polymer Nanowires.” ACS 78th Colloid and Surface
Science Symposium, Yale University, New Haven, CT, June 20-23, 2004.
“Low-Temperature Spin Spray Chemical
Growth of Magnetic Ferrite Films.” Presenter: A. Nemec, MS student.
ACS 78th Colloid and Surface Science Symposium, Yale University, New Haven,
CT, June 20-23, 2004.
ACS Conference 2000 Abstract
"Fluid Interface-Atomic Force Microscopy (FI-AFM)"ACS
74th Colloid and Surface Science Symposium, Lehigh University, Bethlehem,
Penn., June 19-21 2000.
"Fluid Interfacial Separations for Secondary
Fiber Recovery as Probed with Atomic Force Microscopy" 4th Research
Forum on Recycling, Quebec, QC, Cananda, Oct 7-9 1997.
"Colloid Force Measurements at Oil-Water Interfaces"
ACS 71st Colloid and Surface Science Symposium, Univesity of Delaware,
Newark, DE, June 29-July 2, 1997.
My PhD thesis dealt with colloidal particle behavior near oil-water
interfaces, e.g., oil droplets submerged in aqueous solutions or dispersions.
Resume/CV
Hydrophobic
Interaction with Solid Surfaces - a brief summary of a past work.
AFM
Force Profiling of Oil Drops in Aqueous Media - past developments for
liquid-liquid interfacial colloid probe microscopy, a.k.a., Fluid Interface
(FI)-AFM.
Introduction
to my PhD research in Chemical Engineering
Thesis:
Quantifying Single Oil-Particle Interactions in Aqueous Media
I graduated with a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University
of Idaho in May of 1995 and joined Prof.
John Berg's Interfacial
and Colloid Science Research Group in the Chemical
Engineering Department at the University
of Washington that fall as a Ph.D. student. Starting off, I brought
to our group some previous experience of scanning probe microscopy (SPM)
from my summer research (REU Program) with Prof. Ron Andres and now-Drs.
Mike Buss, Rob Crane, and others at Purdue in the School
of Chemical Engineering and the Physics Department. I ended up scanning
gold nanoclusters under decane, attempting to weld them to tungsten wires
for improved image resolution of "rough" substrates with scanning tunneling
microscopy (STM). I don't think anything has come of it yet. At UW, the
AFM from Park Scientific Instruments
was being installed for colloidal studies. First on my list of priorities
were adhesion measurements of variously hydrophobic offset printing paper
(Weyehaeuser funding). I trained two other students to continue the work--which
led to a very interesting discovery published in the Tappi J (see Publications)--while
I forged ahead with adapting commercial AFM to the study of equilibrium
and transient forces between micron-sized particles and oil-water interfaces.
Our primary end-goal was quantitative generation of a true interparticle
force vs. separation profile from thermodyanmic modelingly of the force-distance
data acquired with colloidal probe microscopy, i.e., fluid interface
(FI)-AFM.