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Photolab

Nobility in the nanoworld

Gold always seems to glitter, even on a nanoscale. Nanosheets (in yellow) and nanoparticles (in red) of the noble metal on a silicone plate (blue) were obtained and then tinted using a scanning electron microscope by researchers at the Support for the Advancement of Nanomaterial Design Group (GrAND) at the University of São Paulo Chemistry Institute (IQ-USP). In this image, the artificially applied colors reflect variations in the optical properties of gold when the metal is nanosized. “Metallic nanomaterials have unique chemical, electronic, magnetic and optical properties that facilitate their use in areas like catalysis, electronics, information storage, medicine and plasmonics,” says Pedro Camargo of the Basic Chemistry Department at IQ-USP.

Image submitted by Pedro Camargo, IQ-USP

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