The Daily Bulletin Archive

Takashi Ito, associate professor of chemistry at Kansas State University, will present his research talk "Single Molecule Tracking for Investigation of Cylindrical Microdomain Alignment and Molecular Diffusion in Diblock Copolymer Films" at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, May 1, in Science Building 272. An abstract of his talk appears below.

Before his presentation, from 9:30 to 10:20 a.m., Ito will converse with undergraduate and graduate students at Buffalo State regarding the graduate program at Kansas State University and his science career. This private conversation will be held in Science and Mathematics Complex 201.

Abstract
In this presentation, I will talk about the principles and applications of single-molecule tracking (SMT), measurements of the trajectories of single fluorescent molecules using wide-field fluorescence microscopy. At the beginning, I will review basic issues behind fluorescence measurements, and summarize motivations and challenges in single molecule observation using fluorescence techniques. Subsequently, I will show how to apply SMT for characterizing nanostructured materials, specifically cylinder-forming block copolymer films. By tracking the diffusional motion of individual fluorescent molecules that preferentially partition into the cylindrical microdomains, we can quantitatively assess the extent of order and alignment of the microdomains as well as their diameters. In addition, SMT can be used to measure molecular diffusion at local regions, permitting us to obtain detailed information on the structural and chemical heterogeneity that cannot be obtained using ensemble measurements.

This seminar is sponsored by the Auxiliary Services Grant Allocation Committee, the Vice President for Student Affairs Office, and the Faculty-Student Association.