Chemistry in Pictures: Nanoflowers in bloom

Roshini Ramachandran, an adjunct assistant professor and postdoc in Alex Spokoyny’s lab at the University of California, Los Angeles, directed nanosheets of boron oxide to form these nanoroses. To make the nanostructures, she performed a solvothermal reaction at 300 °C with borax as her starting material and then manipulated the concentration of oleic acid—what’s known as a capping agent—and the temperature of the reaction. Different reaction conditions yield different structures, Ramachandran explains. Ramachandran and Dahee Jung, a graduate student in Spokoyny’s lab, examined these roses under a scanning electron microscope. “Such images remind us that science is a great architect, and the nanoworld can be controlled to resemble the natural world!” Ramachandran says.

Submitted by Roshini Ramachandran and Dahee Jung

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