ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES FOR THE CHARACTERIZATION OF MICRO AND NANOSTRUCTURED MATERIALS
Academic year and teacher
If you can't find the course description that you're looking for in the above list,
please see the following instructions >>
- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2022/2023
- Teacher
- CATIA CONTADO
- Credits
- 6
- Curriculum
- CHIMICA, MATERIALI ED ENERGIA
- Didactic period
- Primo Semestre
- SSD
- CHIM/01
Training objectives
- The course aims to teach to the Students the principles of analytical techniques that are commonly used for the evaluation of main properties of nano- and micromaterials in suspension.
According to Dublin descriptors:
Knowledge and understanding
The course gives to the Student the basis about the principles and some instrumental aspects of some common analytical techniques suitable for the analysis of micro and nano-suspended materials (colloids) and micro/nanostructured surfaces.
Applying knowledge and understanding
The course aims to reinforce the specific knowledges and the Student abilities of making plans to qualitatively and quantitatively characterize (nano)materials and surfaces.
Making judgements
The course gives to the Students the elements necessary to define the analytical problem even if complex, and to choose, among different techniques, the most suitable to characterize the material/surface under study.
Communication
The course has as its objective the acquisition by the student of a specialized scientific language appropriate for the last year of the Master's Degree Course.
Lifelong learning skills
The course stimulates the student to use scientifically authoritative and internationally recognized bibliographic sources in order to be able to critically discuss the results obtained also through complex instrumental approaches. Prerequisites
- The students should have good knowledge of the fundamentals of analytical chemistry, from theoretical to instrumental basics of most-employed analytical techniques.
Course programme
- Introduction. Definition of nano- and micromaterials according to the UE laws.
Targets of nano- and micromaterial characterization: size, shape, structure, chemistry, crystallography.
Dispersed samples: the colloidal state - history and properties (kinetiks, optics and electricals).
Techniques for sizing: centrifugal particle separation(CPS), analytical ultracentrifugatrion (AUC), field-flow fractionation (FFF), chromatography, electrophoresis, light scattering techniques (Dynamic light scattering - DLS, multi-angle light scattering - MALS).
Techniques for the morphological characterization: electron microscopy (SEM and TEM). Atomic force microscopy (AFM).
Techniques for the chemical characterization: basics on proton-induced X-ray emission (PIXE) e X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).
Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) method Didactic methods
- The teaching is based on lectures. During the frontal lessons, the teacher explains the content of the course by writing on the blackboard and projecting slides (Power point presentations). The explanations are supported, when possible, by videos (tutorials) taken from the website of the instruments company and/or from University labs where the instruments are routinely used.
Learning assessment procedures
- The final evaluation is based on an oral exam of 20-40 minutes. The evaluation will test the knowledge of the course contents and the ability of using such a skill to solve specific analytical problems. The evaluation will be positive if the Candidate will prove of knowing the subject/notion/definition and of being able to contextualize such a knowledge in the field of the characterization of dispersed materials and/or nanostructured surfaces.
At the end of the text, the jury will analyse the performance of the Candidate, stimulating the self-evaluation, and will grade the exam. Reference texts
- Students will have the slides projected during the lessons, scientific papers, selected chapters from books of instrumental analytical chemistry and brochures or technical notes of the instruments.
Examples of possible reference books could be:
Catia Contado, Particle Separation Techniques - Fundamentals, Instrumentation, and Selected Applications, 1st Edition, Elsevier, 2022
Robert J. Hunter, Foundations of colloid science, Volume 1,Oxford,Science Pubblication, 2001.
Robert J. Hunter, Zeta Potential in Colloid Science: Principles and Applications, Academic Press, 2013
Di Craig F. Bohren, Donald R. Huffman, Absorption and Scattering of Light by Small Particles, Wiley Interscience Publications, 1983
Terence Allen, Particle Size Measurement, Chapman and Hall, 1975
Field-Flow Fractionation Handbook, Martin E. Schimpf , Karin Caldwell, J. Calvin Giddings Editors, Wiley Interscience, 2000
Particle Separation Techniques - Fundamentals, Instrumentation, and Selected Applications. Editor: Catia Contado, 1st Edition - Elsevier 2022
