Watch a Brownian dance at the nanoscale: live-imaging and quantification of complex nanostructure motion in 3D

As one of the oldest studies in modern physics, Brownian motion is essential to many diffusion and mass transport process in physics, chemical and biological systems. Surprisingly, it is only recently that the Brownian motion of micro-size particles structure e.g. rod, ellipse have been fully studied. However, the nature of different “particles” e.g. colloidal nanoparticles, cells, bacteria, protein, and virus have highly complex structures, and most of them are at nanometer scale, and their diffusion processes cannot be estimated by simple regular shape models. In this project, I will use liquid phase transmission electron microscopy (LPTEM), create complex nanostructures in situ that could mimic different shapes existing in nature, and aim for live-imaging and quantifying complex nanostructure motion at the nanoscale in 3D. These studies will provide unprecedented experimental insights to diffusion processes, and help predict behavior of complex shape at the nanoscale.