NanoEarth Spreads Nanotechnology Awareness to Bassett High School

The National Center for Earth and Environmental Science (NanoEarth) hosted 24 high school students and 3 teachers from Bassett High School. Students spent the morning touring Virginia Tech’s Nanoscale Characterization and Fabrication Laboratory (NCFL) and then explored the rest of Virginia Tech’s campus in the afternoon.

Students spent the morning in five rotations learning about nanotechnology instruments, careers, and completed hands-on demonstrations. VT Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology (VT SuN) Laboratory Director, Weinan Leng, Ph.D., showed participants how the XPS:  X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy works and discussed research that can be completed on it. NCFL Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) Instrumentation Laboratory Manager, Hongyu Wang, Ph.D., discussed how the TEM images materials at the individual atom level and helps scientists make new discoveries in material science. Students were provided a practical insight into the day-to-day TEM operations as they gained hands-on experience with TEM sample preparation and acquired images using the TEM.

NCFL Focused Ion Beam (FIB) and SEM Laboratory Manager, Jarret Wright, Ph.D. discussed the main uses of the dual beam system and the process of obtaining a sample, SEM image, and a FIB set. Wright created the Virginia Tech logo, approximately 15x25μm and 1.5μm deep, on the reverse side of five pennies. The fabrication was done using the bitmap pattern milling function on the Helios 5 SEM-FIB dual beam.  All five pennies that were used in live demonstrations were given to the students. NCFL Instrument Specialist Steve McCartnety, demoed the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) for the students and discussed the college application process. NanoEarth’s Postdoctoral Associate, Bipin Lade, Ph.D., led the group in hands-on NanoDays activities where they explored how nanoscale features affect macroscale properties. 

Wang described the tour as “both educational and inspiring, potentially sparking a newfound interest in nanotechnology among the students.”