The technique, which was developed by Vanderbilt University Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Rizia Bardhan, is described in a paper published online Aug. 4 by the journal Nature Materials. In the last 30 years, there has been a tremendous amount of research studying nanocrystals – tiny crystals sized between one to 100 nanometers in size (a nanometer is to an inch what an inch is to 400 miles) – because of the expectation that they have unique physical and chemical properties that can be used in a broad range of applications. One class of applications depends on nanocrystals’ ability to grab specific molecules and particles out the air, hold on to them and then release them: a process called adsorption and desorption. Progress in this area has been hindered by limitations in existing methods for measuring the physical and chemical changes that take place in individual nanocrystals during the process. As a result, advances have been achieved by trial-and-error and have been limited to engineered samples and specific geometries. Assistant Professor Rizia Bardhan “Our technique is simple, direct and uses off-the shelf instruments so other researchers should have no difficulty using it,” said Bardhan. Collaborators in the development were

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