"Existing techniques for creating nanostructures are limited in what they can accomplish.
Originally shared by Wayne Radinsky
"Existing techniques for creating nanostructures are limited in what they can accomplish. Etching patterns onto a surface with light can produce 2D nanostructures but doesn't work for 3D structures. It is possible to make 3D nanostructures by gradually adding layers on top of each other, but this process is slow and challenging. And, while methods exist that can directly 3D print nanoscale objects, they are restricted to specialized materials like polymers and plastics, which lack the functional properties necessary for many applications. Furthermore, they can only generate self-supporting structures. (The technique can yield a solid pyramid, for example, but not a linked chain or a hollow sphere.)"
"To overcome these limitations, Edward Boyden, the Y. Eva Tan Professor in Neurotechnology and an associate professor of biological engineering and of brain and cognitive sciences at MIT, and his students decided to adapt a technique that his lab developed a few years ago for high-resolution imaging of brain tissue. This technique, known as expansion microscopy, involves embedding tissue into a hydrogel and then expanding it, allowing for high resolution imaging with a regular microscope. Hundreds of research groups in biology and medicine are now using expansion microscopy, since it enables 3D visualization of cells and tissues with ordinary hardware."
"By reversing this process, the researchers found that they could create large-scale objects embedded in expanded hydrogels and then shrink them to the nanoscale, an approach that they call 'implosion fabrication.'"
http://news.mit.edu/2018/shrink-any-object-nanoscale-1213
"Existing techniques for creating nanostructures are limited in what they can accomplish. Etching patterns onto a surface with light can produce 2D nanostructures but doesn't work for 3D structures. It is possible to make 3D nanostructures by gradually adding layers on top of each other, but this process is slow and challenging. And, while methods exist that can directly 3D print nanoscale objects, they are restricted to specialized materials like polymers and plastics, which lack the functional properties necessary for many applications. Furthermore, they can only generate self-supporting structures. (The technique can yield a solid pyramid, for example, but not a linked chain or a hollow sphere.)"
"To overcome these limitations, Edward Boyden, the Y. Eva Tan Professor in Neurotechnology and an associate professor of biological engineering and of brain and cognitive sciences at MIT, and his students decided to adapt a technique that his lab developed a few years ago for high-resolution imaging of brain tissue. This technique, known as expansion microscopy, involves embedding tissue into a hydrogel and then expanding it, allowing for high resolution imaging with a regular microscope. Hundreds of research groups in biology and medicine are now using expansion microscopy, since it enables 3D visualization of cells and tissues with ordinary hardware."
"By reversing this process, the researchers found that they could create large-scale objects embedded in expanded hydrogels and then shrink them to the nanoscale, an approach that they call 'implosion fabrication.'"
http://news.mit.edu/2018/shrink-any-object-nanoscale-1213
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