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RE: Atomic Force Microscopy: Feeling is Seeing
Never heard of Atomic Force Microscopy before, so thanks for the very interesting and comprehensive dissertation @ethandsmith! But you have me (as usual) off on a tangent here, into desalination...
My Dad at one stage proposed a device separating the salt ions by means of a moving magnetic field relative to the solution, thus forcing the ions apart in directions perpendicular to the field, then harvesting the somehow electrically neutralized ions sideways and desalinated water from the middle.
I am personally not very optimistic, seeing possible problems in terms of energy of separation and of physical removal of resulting metals and gasses..but who knows, maybe a little research in this direction can still lead somewhere!
I'm glad you enjoyed the article!
That's an interesting thought for desalination. I would have to look into that concept. Any idea if that work was published? I'd love to read more about it!
It's fascinating to consider other methods for desalination. For my research, we've hit a bit of a wall when it comes to improving the membrane technology, so I'm looking at how nanotechnology can help that.
I hope to post more about my research in the future! Thank you for taking the time to read and respond!
The principle is simple, as described above. The physical implementation is a bit of a challenge.
My dad used a rotating so-called homopolar field setup - a spinning circular U shaped trough with effect an infinite number of magnetic North poles on one edge of the trough and the same but South poles on the other side, thus creating a rotating array of radial magnetic field lines across the circular trough within which to do the experiment. Although he had access to machinery to construct a working model, he did not have either the financial capital to investigate all avenues from this point on, nor a sufficiently sophisticated lab at his disposal for testing results. Sound like your establishment could supply you with all the necessary equipment for something like this!
I honestly don't know of any publications, except for perhaps a preliminary patent file somewhere. A little hard to lay my hands on 4 + decades on!
I still think that's fascinating, so thank you for sharing. It's still a bit difficult to envision, but it sounds extremely sophisticated.
If I come across anything similar in my research, I'll be sure to let you know!
Wouldn't mind seeing if it can in fact produce results! Thanks for your interest.