Scientists at the University of Birmingham discovered a five-millionths of an inch tall nanoparticle that bears a striking resemblance to a festive snowman.
The snowman is a platinum-titanium nanoparticle and appears to have recognizable features including eyes, a nose, and a mouth. The features are precious-metal platinum clusters embedded in the snowman’s titanium dioxide face.
“In the nano regime atoms are the building blocks of nanoscale structures,” Dr. Saeed Gholhaki, one of the scientists to discover the snowman, said in a press statement. “Sometimes the building blocks, in this case platinum cores, can assemble in an interesting way to resemble familiar objects like the face of a snowman!”
Platinum is highly functional in performing chemical transformations making it a sought after metal for scientific use in nanotechnology. The technology used to identify the nano-snowman holds great interest for the energy and medical industries, as it could allow them to target individual atoms.
“By combining titanium and platinum atoms in a nanoparticle, we can reduce the need to use rare and expensive platinum, and also maintain that which we have used,” Dr. Richard Palmer, head of the nanoscale physics research at the University of Birmingham, wrote in a press statement. “This could affect a number of applications where platinum is used such as creating green hydrogen for cleaner energy use; generating low energy electrons in radiotherapy that can kill cancer cells; and to perform chemical transformations to create pharmaceutical products.”
Send tips to andrew@
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.