{"id":222,"date":"2018-10-09T14:26:06","date_gmt":"2018-10-09T14:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/?p=222"},"modified":"2018-10-16T20:40:21","modified_gmt":"2018-10-16T20:40:21","slug":"marc-michel-grow-nanocrystals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/2018\/10\/09\/marc-michel-grow-nanocrystals\/","title":{"rendered":"Crystal Magic: Geoscientist Marc Michel \u201998 creates nanocrystals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Millions of years ago, the earth was completely molten, a roiling ocean of hot magma that only gradually cooled to rock. As it did, various elements\u2009\u2014\u2009aluminum, iron, silicon, and other metals\u2009\u2014\u2009crystalized into the familiar minerals we know today. \u201cAll of the elements we use in our technology come from the minerals in earth\u2019s crust,\u201d says Marc Michel \u201998. \u201cWe rely on them for all aspects of our modern existence.\u201d<\/p>\n

An assistant professor of geosciences at Virginia Tech, Michel has worked to replicate <\/span>the earth\u2019s crystallization processes\u2009\u2014\u2009albeit on an extremely accelerated timescale\u2009\u2014\u2009to create brand-new synthetic minerals. \u201cBy understanding and controlling crystallization, we can put together atoms in new ways,\u201d he says. Last fall, he received a $560,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to explore crystallization of tiny nanoparticles that could be used in applications ranging from environmental cleanup to medical treatments.<\/p>\n

Michel graduated from Colgate with a geology degree<\/a>, but also minored in art, which has proven to be useful in his crystal design career. \u201cA lot of my research has an artistic component to it,\u201d he says. While earning his master\u2019s at Stony Brook University, he worked in a lab doing \u201chard core crystallization,\u201d taking the results to the giant synchrotron at nearby Brookhaven National Laboratory to examine them under the intense spectrum of light. Michel was hooked, staying to earn a PhD. He began focusing on nanoparticles, a 10,000th to a millionth of a millimeter in size, sometimes consisting of just a few atoms. At that size, solids have vastly different properties. For example, some nanocrystals can soak up pollutants, absorb humidity, transmit electricity, or insulate tiny wires, depending on their size and shape.<\/p>\n

Michel is currently exploring a new way to grow crystals by sticking nanoparticles together. His NSF-funded research will examine these processes in aluminosilicate crystals that consist of aluminum, silicon, and oxygen\u2009\u2014\u2009some of the most common materials on earth\u2009\u2014\u2009in an effort to develop nanoparticles with unique new properties.<\/p>\n

To aid in that process, Michel has used 3-D printing to make new reactors to build crystals. The size of a coffee cup, the reactors are constructed from a transparent resin with inputs for injecting chemicals and for stirring to create reactions. By varying the concentration of chemicals and injection rate, scientists can change the crystals ultimately formed. Michel describes how to create the reactors in a paper published last September in Applied Geochemistry<\/i>. Creating them through 3-D printing can decrease the cost and allow for rapid tweaking of designs.<\/span><\/p>\n

His hope is that disseminating such techniques can increase the rate of producing breakthrough new crystals with new applications to change the world. \u201cA community of people working toward that common goal will ultimately build a base of knowledge that makes a contribution well beyond individual groups.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Geoscientist Marc Michel \u201998 is exploring techniques to create useful nanocrystals before our very eyes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1221,"featured_media":215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,20],"tags":[64,66],"coauthors":[153,161],"class_list":["post-222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-discover","category-research","tag-geol","tag-geoscience"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/palXSH-3A","amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/09\/discover-michel.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":705,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions\/705"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}