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Chemistry In Pictures

Chemistry in Pictures: Micro desert

by Manny I. Fox Morone
February 8, 2023

 

A magnified view of a silica surface reveals its microsize textures resembling the cracks of a desert or salt flat. The foregroun fades into a darker artificial background showing a sunset above mountains.
Credit: Mohammad Soltaniayan

This seemingly vast landscape is actually just a few hundred micrometers wide. Mohammad Soltaniayan, a PhD student in Kevin Golovin’s lab at the University of Toronto, captured this image of a cracked silica surface using an electron microscope. Soltaniayan’s work centers on controlling the thickness—and thus microsized texture—of coatings like this one and leveraging properties of those various nanoscale coatings to add more layers of materials onto a surface. (Although the texture is the real deal, Soltaniayan added the striking sunset background to image for effect.).

Submitted by Mohammad Soltaniayan

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