Researchers in the Australian state of Victoria have invented the world’s most miniature X-ray detector, which can have a substantial influence on how biologists watch and investigate cells in the future.
It resulted from a collaboration between researchers at Monash University in Melbourne and RMIT University in Melbourne. They reported their findings in the journal Advanced Functional Materials (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology).
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Using an ultrathin material known as SnS nanosheets, the scientists created detectors that were twice as thin as traditional X-ray detectors. We’re talking about roughly 10,000 times thinner than a sheet of paper at just 10 nanometres in thickness, according to the researchers. Prof. Jacek Jassienik, a materials scientist and engineering professor at Monash University’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and a senior author of this study, says it was the first time this kind of material has been used in X-ray detectors.
It is because the material absorbs X-rays effectively that these kinds of opportunities arise.
According to him, researchers will be able to investigate cell-cell interactions and processes with a greater degree of “temporal resolution.” At the time of the study, they could only look at the consequences of these interactions.
“You can scan anything and receive an image of it very instantaneously. The sensing time is the factor that determines the temporal resolution. In principle, given the high sensitivity and temporal resolution of the camera, you might watch events taking place in real time “Jasieniak said.
Instead of the more recognized “hard” X-rays that are used to scan for cracked bones, its material would be used in conjunction with “soft” X-rays, which operate at the lower end of the X-ray spectrum and are less damaging to the body.
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Soft X-rays, which are used at the nanoscale to examine the structure of biological materials such as tissue samples, are used to investigate the structure of natural materials. The real potential of the breakthrough is yet unclear at this early stage of development. Babar Shabbir, the study’s principal author, said that the team would test various device thicknesses in diverse biological cell environments.
