CTS-9500156 ABSTRACT A laser light scattering apparatus which will be purchase, and will be primarily utilized for a project on the production and characterization of the properties of a variety of inorganic nanoparticles. New aqueous colloidal processing technique that utilizes intravesicular reactions to produce batches of nanometer sized inorganic particles have been developed. The objectives are better understanding and controlling the particle formation technique, and understanding the properties of the nanoparticles. The small size of the particles could dramatically alter electron wave functions, leading to 'quantum' size effects. Furthermore, particles in this size range contain mostly 'surface' atoms (bond lengths and mobilities for these atoms can differ from that in bulk), leading to a large impact on the properties of these particles. This apparatus will also be used to characterize a variety of surface functionalized magnetic nanoclusters that are being used in a magnetic immunoabsorption technique for cell and plasmid separations, obtain accurate size distributions in magnetic colloidal preparations so that neutron and X-ray scattering data on the same sample can be interpreted properly, as well as monitor kinetics of tubulin assembly/disassembly in response to the environmental toxin cadmium. ***
