Interview with: Tim Nunney from Thermo Fisher Scientific about the Nanoscale Centre of Excellence.
LISTEN NOWStewart Bland:
Please introduce yourself, and tell us about your role and your background.
Tim Nunney:
My name’s Tim Nunney, and I’m a product manager within the Nanoscale Materials Analysis group for Thermo Fisher Scientific. I’m responsible for marketing the surface analysis products, the instruments that use x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and so my role really encompasses organizing demonstrations for customers, running our webinar program, generating collateral, going to trade shows – all those kind of things. I’ve worked for Thermo for ten years now, and had roles in operations, down on the factory floor as well as in the marketing group. My background in surface science really goes back almost twenty years, through a post-doctoral position at the University of Southampton, before I started here at Thermo. Before that, I did a PhD in surface science at the University of Liverpool.
Stewart Bland:
Fantastic. So Thermo Fisher have recently unveiled the Nanoscale Centre of Excellence. So, just what is the Nanoscale Centre of Excellence?
Tim Nunney:
The Centre is a refurbishment of the facilities that we have here at our factory in East Grinstead, in the south of England. We’ve been based in the town for almost fifty years now. We’ve actually been in the current building since the mid-Eighties, I think. What we’ve done is really brought it up to the state-of-the-art, so that it can fulfil the several requirements that we need from the lab. Firstly, it provides the perfect showcase for both our microanalysis and surface analysis products, key instruments for the analysis materials at the nanoscale. Customers typically want to spend several days really getting under the skin of the instruments and their capabilities, and the new lab really enhances that experience. It gives them the opportunity to see not only the instrument maybe that they came to see, but how our other technologies may be of benefit to them.
Secondly, the Centre will be used to host training events for our customers, to help people get the very best from their instruments and their data, and also to host the seminar events, a bit like the one that we held last week for the grand opening of the Centre, and again this allows us to engage with the community at large, and bring them into the facility to see how we can benefit their analysis.
The last thing the Centre provides is a venue where we can foster collaboration with groups around the world. We’re investigating current materials challenges, and developing the materials of the future. The lab provides the range of instrumentation, including new capabilities like the argon cluster ion beam profiling source, which our collaborative partners may not have easy access to. Having the new Centre also allows us to engage with the academic community in the UK, and allows us to collaborate on PhD and EngD studentships too.
Stewart Bland:
I see, thank you. So what are the plans for the future of the Centre? What’s the ultimate goal?
Tim Nunney:
The goal is to continue to both reflect and, as much as possible, anticipate the needs of researchers working in materials science. We want to deliver a facility that shows how Thermo Fisher Scientific can work with scientists to achieve their aims. At present, we have all our surface analysis instruments, as I’ve mentioned, and our triple system of microanalysis products for electron microscopes installed into the lab. In the future, we want to be able to expand that, to really be able to show how instruments from other relevant areas of the Thermo portfolio, for example Raman spectroscopy, can be brought to bear in the issues that our customers have. It’s rare these days that you can find a solution to a problem with just one experimental technique, perhaps despite our best efforts to say that to you, and so having a full range of state-of-the-art analysis equipment available in one location will allow us to further develop collaborations, leading to methods and strategies, that we hope can enable our customers to overcome the materials problems of the future.
Stewart Bland:
Fantastic, thank you. So nano covers a lot of materials and technologies. Will the Centre be focusing on any particular areas?
Tim Nunney:
Well, as you say, nano does cover an awful lot of ground, and our customers typically are looking at nanoscale problems across a very broad range of areas. Recently we’ve seen some nanoscale problems in areas such as art restoration, and the forensic analysis of fabric coatings, which are a little bit outside maybe the usual expectations of nanoscale materials. It goes without saying that, looking at graphene and other 2D materials, is something that we are very involved in, and looking at in particular chemical modification in ultra-thin layers is one of the key strengths of x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Our experience in working with more traditional semiconductor research has given us the tools in our software and in our instruments to be able to work in these new carbon-based areas too. What we are seeing is a focus on materials for energy generation as well, particularly for photovoltaic applications, and also in energy storage, with materials for producing lighter and thinner lithium ion-based batteries, for example. Biotechnology is another key growth area. We tend to be involved in looking at the development of materials like biosensors, perhaps created through molecular self-assembly, and also the analysis of biomimetic coatings for implant devices.
Stewart Bland:
So finally, I’d like to finish, as always, by asking, in your opinion, what are the hot topics in materials science right now?
Tim Nunney:
The areas of materials science, I think, that we’re really seeing as hot are across maybe three broad categories. One is the move away from looking at ultra-thin film oxides for semiconductors, and moving into polymer-based electronics, particularly in applications such as touchscreens, and of course the rise of functionalized carbon nanomaterials, as I mentioned in the previous answer. It’s something else that we’re seeing more and more of in that kind of area.
The other side of the need for energy efficiency, aside from the generation of storage materials, is looking at the materials used in the construction of vehicles, and the development of strong and light materials, making sure that they’re easy to combine as well, and looking how they can form these composite.
Another important area is catalysis, and in particular band-gap engineering, for example to allow photo-catalysts to work more efficiently in sunlight. Getting this right, at the right cost, would enable their use more widely in applications like water purification. I think it’s fair to say that a lot of the driving force we see in hot areas is in materials science at the moment is based around environmental issues, be it energy efficiency, better use and re-use of resources, or the development of new materials to replace those that will become increasingly difficult to source.