Hitachi teams with Clemson on electron microscopy
Thanks to a partnership with Hitachi High Technologies America,
Inc. and the South Carolina Legislature, Clemson University now
has one of the best university electron microscopy laboratories
in the United States, giving researchers the capability to view
molecules and atoms at several million times their actual size.
Hitachi High Technologies America Inc. has provided money that,
when matched with a grant from the South Carolina Research University
Infrastructure Act, resulted in $3.3 million worth of new and updated
electron microscopes for Clemson University. The equipment, housed
in the new Advanced Materials Research Laboratory, uses a beam of
electrons to produce an enlarged image of a minute object.
Clemson has partnered with Hitachi High Technologies America for
the last five years in electron microscopy.
In advanced materials –– the backbone of such industries
as automotive, microelectronics, chemicals and ceramics ––
scientists look for new ways to make existing materials stronger
and more efficient. Nanotechnology allows engineers to build materials
atom by atom, giving them unprecedented control over their properties.
With this equipment, students and industry scientists alike can
view or test microscopic samples of items that range from live cells
to carbon nanotubes, which are typically one one-hundred-thousandth
the size of a human hair.
The S.C. Research University Infrastructure Act provided $1.65 million
to Clemson for the equipment. Hitachi matched that award to create
the total of $3.3 million.
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