In Situ Liquid Transmission Electron Microscopy: An Essential Tool for Studying Dynamic Processes at the Nanoscale

Technological advances in resolution, elemental analysis, and sample preparation have resulted in the transmission electron microscope (TEM) becoming an indispensable instrument for studying the structure and composition of a wide range of materials. When used in conjunction with state-of-the-art, dedicated in-situ sample holders, the TEM can easily function as a real-time, nanoscale laboratory. Closed-cell in-situ systems enable vacuum-sensitive samples, such liquids, to be encapsulated between ultrathin electron transparent membranes, Thus, samples can move and react freely, allowing direct observation of processes such as growth, degradation, particle-particles interactions at a resolution of a few nanometers. Here we will review recent advances in liquid-cell transmission electron microscopy (LC-TEM), and how these studies have been applied to systems such as nanoparticle nucleation and growth, biological systems, corrosion, battery cycling and electrocatalysis, enhancing our understanding of the underlying mechanistic processes that control a materials’ bulk behaviour.

Bio
Dr. Madeline Dressel Dukes has been at the fore front of in-situ liquid phase TEM since her graduate work, where she earned her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, USA.  Her dissertation, Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy of Tagged Proteins in Whole Eukaryotic Cells, supervised by one of the founders of liquid-phase TEM, Dr. Niels de Jonge, she utilized the first prototype design of the Protochips' in situ liquid TEM system, Poseidon. After completing her degree, she joined Protochips in 2011 as an Application Scientist specializing in in-situ liquid phase TEM. Her area of expertise is experiment and workflow development, and she collaborates regularly with in-situ liquid-cell users around the world to develop and test new liquid-TEM techniques and instrumentation.