New lights to the nanometric knowledge
Agência FAPESP - 03/05/2008
The Cesar Lattes Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Center was inaugurated this Tuesday (3/4) afternoon at the campus of the Synchrotron Light National Laboratory (LNLS), in Campinas (SP), at a solemn occasion in which attended the President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and the Minister of Science and Technology, Sergio Rezende. Result from the evolution of a nanotechnology research program started in 1999 in the LNLS, the new center gathers, at a built area of 2.2 thousand square meters, a group of laboratories dedicated to the study of the properties of materials at the atomic and molecular levels. The Studies and Projects Financing Agency (Finep) invested R$ 6 million (US$ 3.4 million) in the building construction, and FAPESP (Foundation of Support to the Research of the State of São Paulo), US$ 2.5 million (about R$ 4.2 million), for the purchase of equipment, including the analytical transmission electron microscope for the nanocharacterization of materials. The premises of the center will work integrated with the experimental stations of the synchrotron light source, an intense electromagnetic radiation produced by high-energy electrons inside a particle accelerator. The Synchrotron Light covers a wide range of the electromagnetic spectrum: X-rays, Ultra-Violet and Infra-Red Light. Among the lines of research currently in progress in the LNLS and that may continue being developed in the newly inaugurated center, Brum points out the researches in information technology (IT) on nanosemiconductors. Brum also emphasized the researches on soft matter, which involves the solution of basic problems in composites such as polymers. There are countless applications for the soft matters: from plastics to cosmetics, remarked Brum. Following the same rules for the use of the LNLS, whose development of researches is open to the national and international scientific communities, Cesar Lattes Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Center will also receive proposals of projects for the use of its physical premises.