Nano Animation

Perspectives: Research and Creative Activities at SIUC, Fall 2007

:: research survey ::

Nano Animation

Even the mightiest microscopes cannot peer into the world of molecules and atoms, where the secrets that potentially could unlock unlimited clean energy are thought by many scientists to reside.

But an SIUC researcher is opening a window to that super-small world using computer modeling that can "virtually" bring scientists face to face with chemical reactions at the molecular level.

Lichang Wang, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, has received a four-year, $200,000 research grant from the National Science Foundation for her work on "nanostructured" fuel cell catalysts, meaning that their size, shape, and composition are controlled at the molecular level.

Wang and her graduate and undergraduate students are collaborating with a team of researchers from the State University of New York at Binghamton working on catalysts that engineers can incorporate into the design of electric fuel cells for future automobiles and other uses. Using sophisticated software, including some programs developed at SIUC, she will help the other researchers "see" how different atoms would interact under given situations in an effort to help them build the most efficient and effective catalysts.

She'll do this through computer modeling and animation, which allows the researchers to test approaches in cyberspace before going to the time, trouble, and expense of testing them in a real-world laboratory.

"It is very difficult and time-consuming to make and control the various catalysts in the laboratory, as we're talking about nanoscale structures, and controlling variables such as temperature exactly is very important and difficult," Wang says. "But my students and I can make virtual catalysts using the computer relatively easily.

"We can control variables, like temperature, and we can tell the researchers doing experiments, for instance, whether temperature is a very important variable or not in a particular [case], based on our simulation results."

In fuel cell research, finding the best catalyst to turn oxygen to water is critical, Wang says. This "oxygen reduction reaction" is one of the research team's main challenges, along with improving membrane conductivity and hydrogen storage and production methods.

Wang uses theoretical calculations to produce animation sequences that show the reactions happening. Researchers can tell from the movements how to make improvements in catalyst formulations. They can also view the reactions from different angles, picking up further clues.

The way the molecules move when stimulated by light of various frequencies gives the scientists clues on how to break the relevant chemical bonds present. This results in the desired reaction, such as hydrogen production.

"From that perspective, we can actually see what's happening," Wang says. "As we change the variables, the animation changes, too."

With the computer simulations providing pinpoint control over a virtual experiment's variables, the results are "purer" and more reliable, Wang says. The approach also makes the research "greener," in that the scientists don't have to use actual chemicals in the initial stages of work.

—by Tim Crosby