Full Pressure Range Environmental Gas Heating Holder for the Transmission Electron Microscope

Researchers are currently hindered when observing dynamic gas-solid interactions in the transmission electron microscope (TEM). Yet solid-state materials and gases interact in many important ways. The most critical technological application for these observations is catalysis, where one would like to directly observe on the atomic scale how catalysts respond to the environment while they are active. Several areas of research, such as catalysis and sensors, will greatly benefit from having access to such observations. The importance of catalytic studies for science and technology was highlighted by two Nobel Prizes in chemistry for catalytic studies (Ertl, 2007 and Suzuki, Heck, Nigishi, 2010) awarded in the past five years. This Phase II proposal focuses on developing and bringing to market a TEM specimen holder where the specimen is exposed to various gas atmospheres with a wide range of pressures at different temperatures with full operando quantitative measuring capabilities. Such a device would enable in-situ TEM studies of catalysts and sensors, among many other materials of interest. In Phase I of the work we have successfully created a working prototype of the in-situ TEM gas holder and supporting hardware. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: This product will be aimed at researchers using electron microscopy for characterizing the internal structure of materials at the nanometer to sub-Angstrom lengths scales and who are interested in dynamic in-situ experiments. These experiments are finding increasing use as direct methods to explore the relationships among materials processing methods and microstructure and functional properties (e.g. catalytic and sensing). The commercial availability of a variable temperature gas TEM holder will facilitate and accelerate academic research in the field of gas catalysis. It will also provide a platform to study active elements of sensors during operation with relevant resolution (atomic length scale).