The Institute for Functional Nanomaterials (IFN) is a jurisdiction-wide institute regrouping 33 researchers from several campuses of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) system. Providing easy access to instrumentation and expertise is important for The Nanoscopy facilty occupies over 1,800 square feet of state of the art instrumentation. expanding the frontiers of knowledge and for the education of our technical workforce. The Nanoscopy Facility (NF)was therefore recently created as a multi-user facility with the help of the NSF-funded IFN and is centrally located on campus in a retrofitted space in the basement of the College of Natural Sciences on the Rio Piedras Campus of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR). The core facility on the Rio Piedras campus was built to suit some of the most sensitive instrumentation, in particular the aberration corrected high resolution transmission electron microscope (TEM),and steps were taken to eliminate environmental fluctuations such as vibrations and temperature oscillations. It occupies over 1,800 ft2 and already houses state-of-the-art characterization instrumentation including two TEMs, one focused ion beam (FIB) system and one high resolution scanning electron microscope (SEM).

The synergy of the instruments available and their outstanding capabilities makes this facility a particularly powerful environment for studying a large variety of materials. The NF is managed and maintained for the account of the IFN under the direction of Maxime Guinel, faculty with a joint appointment between the departments of Chemistry and Physics. It serves mostly the research needs of the IFN members but is also accessible to external users including the industries of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. With little time, we expect this facility to gain importance and international recognition.

The NF provides access to state-of-the-art analytical electron microscopes, including our latest acquisition, the JEOL JEM-2200FS ultra high resolution TEM, equipped with a Cs probe corrector and a 200 kV field emission gun. The point and the energy resolutions are 0.19 nm and 0.8 eV, respectively. The suite of instruments is used to gain better understanding of materials systems and especially nanomaterials.

Researchers study a large variety of nanosystems, such as: composite nanocatalysts, multilayer arrays, nanorod shape heterostructures, core/shell nanoparticles, nanorods/contacts interfaces, and distribution of surface passivating elements in nanosensors arrays and nanostructures in general. The NF continues to become more competitive and helps accelerate the development of the nanotechnology and nano-bio research initiatives in PR.