Congratulations to the winners of the STS Elionix Scientific Image competition of Q3 2023!
The STS Elionix Scientific Image competition allows us to showcase the creative side of the researchers here at Tyndall. They share scientific images from their research which they have discovered to be visually striking or informative to the technically excellent.
The judges for the Q3 competition were Prof. William Scanlon, CEO; Peter Smyth, Commercial Director; Ursula Morrish, Marketing & Communications Manager; Graeme Maxwell, Head of Specialty Products & Services and Dr Daniela Iacopino, Researcher, MNS.
The exceptional quality and creativity in the three images led to the votes being cast for the following winners: Ehren Michael Dixon (Platinum Cordyceps), Rupa Ranjani Palanisamy (Candy Cubes), Vuslat Juska (Beauty).
The winners are each awarded a €100 Me2You Gift Card, kindly sponsored by STS Elionix.
Platinum Cordyceps
Ehren Dixon, Electrochemical Materials & Energy
In Electroplating, at Tyndall, sometimes the deposition can go awry, but the results can be interesting, nonetheless.
This image occurred while attempting to grow smooth platinum onto the microdisk. Here the platinum had other ideas. It takes control of the microdisk, bursting out like a fungal-like growth, forming the cordyceps made of pure platinum we see in this image.
This image is inspired by the images seen in the action-adventure video game & Sky TV adaption of “The Last of Us”.
Happy Halloween!
The Beauty
Vuslat Juska, Nanotechnology Group
This image may resemble a pretty flower, but it is actually a device designed as a multiplexed chip for stress biomarkers detection such as cortisol.
The related publication is open access and available in BioRxiv:
The circle part of the image has 100 um diameter gold, with a certain recess depth. The stem part of the image is the connection track that is covered with a passivation layer. With this particular device, slight damage on the stem caused cracks.
The deposition process is the hydrogen bubble template, which is a well-established protocol at micro and nano scale. The porous material is electrodeposited gold foam. The growth of the gold foam continued through the cracks during the electrodeposition.
Although the presence of the cracks on the passivation is unfavourable, it represents beauty as an image of a flower and makes me a smile when I look at it!
Candy Cubes
Rupa Ranjani Palanisamy, Advanced Energy Materials, Materials Chemistry and Analysis Group (MCAG)
“TRANSLATE” project aims to introduce novel electrode materials for thermally chargeable supercapacitors (TMSs) in order to efficiently harvest and store the low-grade heat energy into electrical energy for later utilization.
In this regard, transition metal chalcogenides (TMCs) have been employed in the thermal energy storage and conversion application because of their high thermal stability, excellent electronic conductivity and rich redox states.
The intrinsically multiple valence states, diverse morphologies, and high redox activity of Zinc based "Candy Cubes" makes it a potential electrode candidate for TMSs.