UZH researcher measures charge of nanoparticles

Prof. Madhavi Krishnan and her co-workers have invented a method that allows them to examine how material works on a nanometer scale. For all solutions manufactured industrially, the electrical charge of the nanoparticles contained therein is of primary interest, because it is the electrical charge that allows a fluid solution to remain stable and not to develop a lumpy consistency. With this new method, they get a picture of the entire suspension along with all of the particles contained in it. Between two glass plates the size of a microchip, the researchers create thousands of round energy holes, as they “entice” each particle into an “electrostatic trap”. The trick is that these holes have just a weak electrostatic charge. The scientists then add a drop of the solution to the plates, whereupon each particle falls into an energy hole and remains trapped there.