ANALYTICAL ABILITIES OF THE UNIT FOR NANOSCOPIC
CHARACTERIZATION
Inna Popov, Avi Ben-Hur, Evgenia Blayvas, Vitaly Gutkin, Vladimir Uvarov & Anna Radko
The Unit for Nanoscopic Characterization, the Harvey Kreuger Family Center for Nanoscience and
Nanotechnology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
E-mail: innap@savion.huji.ac.il
The Unit for Nanoscopic Characterization (UNC) is the core facility of the Hebrew University in the
field of materials characterization. The Unit belongs to the University Center for Nanoscience and
Nanotechnology and is situated in E. Safra Campus Givat Ram. The UNC is open for the analytical
service for external clients – either industrial or academic institutions in Israel. A variety of
characterization techniques are available at the UNC. The lab is equipped with the state-of-the-art
electron microscopes (scanning and transmission), advanced scanning probe microscope, powder Xray diffractometer, and the instrument for X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Auger
spectroscopy. Here we present examples of a few case studies in which advanced abilities of our lab
have been successfully applied for characterization of chemical products:
A. Polymorphism and crystalline habit of anti-epileptic drug carbamazepine precipitated from
microemulsions has been characterized with powder X-ray diffraction and scanning electron
microscopy1.
B. The transformation of the Hg2+ to the Hg0 nanocluster was characterized by X-ray
photoelectron spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray
spectroscopy2.
C. Crystalline structure, crystallite size and morphological peculiarities of nano-scale titania was
studied by X-ray diffraction and high resolution transmission electron microscopy3.
D. The investigation of the timing and severity of growth insults expressed in the development of
the lower primary second molars of children with DS and CP using atomic force microscope4.
E. The method of X-ray diffraction quantitative phase analysis has been developed for the
quantification of clopidogrel bisulphate polymorphs in their mixtures (courtesy A. Vitner).
References
1. A. Kogan, I. Popov, V. Uvarov, S. Cohen, A. Aserin, N. Garti, Microemulsion Facilitated
Crystallization of Carbamazepine J. Dispersion Sci. Technol. 28, 7, 2007.
2. M. Riskin, B. Basnar, E. Katz and I. Willner, Cyclic Control of the Surface Properties of a
Monolayer-Functionalized Electrode by the Electrochemical Generation of Hg Nanoclusters.
Chem. Eur. J. 12, 8549-8557, 2006.
3. V. Uvarov, I. Popov, Metrological Characterization of X-ray Diffraction Methods for
Nanocrystallite Size Determination. Materials Characterization, 58, 8, 2007.
4. D. Keinan, A. Radko, P. Smith and U. Zilberman The resistance of the tooth enamel from
children with Down syndrome and Cerebral Palsy to acid treatment. (in press).
www.isranalytica.org.il
Organized and Produced by:
P.O.B 4034 Ness-Ziona 70400, Israel
Tel: +972-8-931-3070, Fax: +972-8-931-3071
Site: www.BioForum.org.il
E-mail: BioForum@bezeqint.net