Micro autumn scenery!

During the lab classes of the minor course BioNanoTechnology Introduction (BNT50806) students work with experiments on the nanoscale. They synthesize gold nanoparticles, work with dendrimers and micelles and experiment with micro contact printing. In the final two weeks they get the freedom to develop their own experiment that combines aspects of topics they learned about during the course.

The group of Joppe, Sophie, Aron and Tara decided to explore the combination of surface functionalization and growing crystals, which was inspired by research of Kaplan et al. (Science 2017).

The crystals form from dissolved silicates and barium chloride under the influence of pH, temperature and dissolving CO₂ from the air. Although not all their samples resulted in visible crystals, one of their samples created a scenery with a high autumn vibe. Small mushroom of about 5 micrometer can easily be recognized in the recorded Scanning Electron Microscopy pictures obtained by Vittorio Saggiomo at the Wageningen Electron Microscopy Centre (WEMC).

The resource was as enthousiastic as we were and wrote a nice online article about this lab experiment and added the picture as the centrefold for their printed magazien.