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Nanomicroscopy Center Strengthens Nanoresearch at TKK - Professor Janne Ruokolainen

Professor Janne Ruokolainen, the director of the new Nanomicroscopy Center curves his motorcycle to the front yard of the new Nanohouse. After he has changed his outfit it is time to take a tour in the Nanomicroscopy Center that started its operation in the last spring.



Together Nanohouse and the Nanomicroscopy Center (NMC) form a complex called Nanopoli. Nanopoli is a part of the national basic research infrastructure as well as Micronova. Together these form the core of the nanoresearch at TKK. Nanopoli houses the researchers from the Low Temperature Laboratory and the nanoresearchers from the Department of Applied Physics and the research areas span from nanomaterials to low temperature physics and from energy to brain research.

Janne Ruokolainen also leads jointly with academy professor Olli Ikkala the research group on molecular materials. This experience combined with his experience from the USA and from other similar facilities has been important when designing the NMC. The people that have been participating in the planning, both the scientific experts as well as the architects, have conducted visits to similar facilities in England and Germany. All this has resulted in excellent facilities and equipment for the advanced nanoresearch.

- Building the NMC has required the use of special solutions. These are used to exclude the effects of vibrations and magnetic fields in order to generate favorable research environment, says Janne Ruokolainen. Also the temperature, humidity and air flow is constantly monitored from the impressive engine room at the top of the building.

NMC's investments for developing the research

The NMC has three specially equipped rooms that have been isolated by seven meter deep trenches. In addition, the microscopes lie on an eight meters thick layer of concrete. These structures ensure that the external conditions will not interfere with the research. Two of the rooms will be equipped with already ordered microscopes by Jeol. One of the microscopes will be so called sub-Å TEM and the other so called liquid-helium bio-TEM. These instruments will allow the investigation of the features down to 0.1 nm. They will be in operation during the coming year. These microscopes are the only ones the Japanese have delivered to the Nordic Countries and even similar instruments cannot be found in Finland. The third room will be in reserve for future acquisitions. (Click here for more detailed info about the facilities).

- One of the new TEMs is intended for the study of soft and biological (e.g. water containing) samples in liquid helium and liquid nitrogen temperatures and will attract users outside TKK as well. These users could be from the faculty of biotechnology or medical research, and chemists from the University of Helsinki, for example. Both of the new instruments allow the imaging in low temperatures, says Janne Ruokolainen.

The instruments on the other side of the corridor are already in heavy use. These instruments include transmission electron microscope (TEM), the atomic force microscopes (AFM), the atomic resolution scanning tunneling microscope (STM) and the newly installed scanning electron microscope (SEM). The AFMs are used to study the surfaces of materials and to manipulate the nanostructures and they are operated around 1500 hours a year. (Click here for more detailed roomplan).

- The new instruments will definitely bring more users into the NMC. Our reserving and user tracking systems are operational, so you are all welcome to use our facilities, Janne Ruokolainen welcomes. At the moment, around 80 % of the TEM microscope users are TKK researchers and around 20 % come from the University of Helsinki. The time is priced according to academic and industrial users.

Own research interests in molecular materials

Janne Ruokolainen is an esteemed researcher in the field of molecular materials. His research is focused on the control of materials morphology and properties using supramolecular polymeric materials. For example they have applied these concepts to make (nano)porous materials, functional porous structures based on pyrolysis of cured templates of block copolymer and phenolic resin, and materials which can be controlled by externally e.g. responsive hydrogels or temperature switchable photonic bandgaps.

Usually, in the research of nanomaterials, microscopes and x-ray diffraction instruments are used to complement each other. To study the properties of the materials indirectly the group has designed and built an x-ray diffraction instrument that is capable of measuring both the small and wide angle diffractions. These kinds of instruments cannot be bought. 

Some work related issue still require some attention after which Janne Ruokolainen jumps again to ride his bike towards Switzerland with research collaboration in mind.

Contact information:
Professor, Dr Janne Ruokolainen, TKK
Director of NanoMicroscopy Center
Tel: +358-(0)9-451 2167 mobile: +358-(0)50-347 0759
Janne.ruokolainen@tkk.fi
http://nmc.tkk.fi

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