Particle Research
The group of the particle lab investigates particles / materials at the nanoscale. A strong focus of the particle lab lies on the electron microscopy (scanning and transmission) as these methods provides vital information about the morphology, structure and chemical composition of the nanosale materials (nanoparticles per se but also nanostructured larger particles). However, also the best electron microscope is usually limited by the quality of the sample preparation. We therefore made the sample preparation (including size fractionation) an additional focus of our group. Last but not least, the high manpower required for the EM work reduces the throughput of sample material questioning the statistical significance of the data. We therefore back up our measurements with bulk analytical techniques whenever possible.
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| Iron corrosion products | Iron corrosion products | Iron corrosion products |
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| Cu(0) on bacteria | W-wire of a corona charger | |
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| Hollow sphere |
Coloids of Eisriesenwelt |
Iron sulfides |
Selected Projects:
- Formation
of Fe(III)-precipitates formed in aerated Fe(II) and As(III) containing water [...]
- Climatic indications of particles (>500nm) in
Ice cores [...]
- Development of a Laser Induced Berakdown Detection
(LIBD) system for fast on-line analysis of nanosized materials in the
environment [...]
Fate and behavior of engineered NP in the environment [...]
Infrastructure / Analytics
Eawag is member of the EMEZ (www.emez.ethz.ch) and therefore has access to a very sophisticated infrastructure in the field of electron microscopy and related sample preparation techniques.
Thanks to various collaborations and joint projects also the infrastructure from the Empa is accessible to trained users.
Scanning Electron Microscopes
SEM (XL30, LaB6) (Eawag)
ESEM (XL30, FEG), equipped with an EDX system (EDAX) and two Nanomanipulators (Empa).
Nova NanoSEM230, equipped with and Oxfrod EDX system (XMAX 80) (joint project Eawag - Empa, located at Empa)
CM30 equipped with an EDX System (NORAN, System SIX) (EMEZ)
Morgani (EMEZ)
Atomic Force Microscope (Eawag)
Particle counters
Klotz Syringe
Malvern Zetasizer
Laser Induced Breakdown Detection (LIBD)
Sample preparation
Octopus V1.0
AsFFFF with several detectors