MRI: Acquisition of a Transmission Electron Microscope for In-situ Studies of Soft and Hard Matter

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This Major Research Instrumentation award supports the acquisition of a transmission electron microscope (TEM) at North Carolina State University (NCSU) equipped to study a broad range of interdisciplinary materials. The microscope enables interdisciplinary research into energy storage and conversion, biological compatibility, environmental mediation, and materials exhibiting exotic properties such as superconductivity. While a TEM is usually operated at room temperature and under high vacuum, this microscope enables imaging with the sample at temperatures ranging from cryogenic to a thousand degrees Celsius, in a variety of liquids, or exposed to various gases. These conditions can closely match those where the materials operate and thus provide new scientific insights. The TEM is integrated into several activities at NCSU including the opportunity for K-12 students to experience scientific instrumentation first hand. Results from the microscope are also incorporated into a centerpiece educational outreach program that exposes the general public to atomic resolution electron microscopy through the unintimidating medium of art.This Major Research Instrumentation award supports the acquisition of a transmission electron microscope (TEM) at North Carolina State University (NCSU) equipped to investigate hard and soft matter at conditions where dynamic phenomena occur. The instrument catalyzes new research in the Research Triangle by enabling fast in situ imaging in a variety conditions including low temperatures (down to cryogenic), heating, biasing, mechanical loading, gas, and liquid. Further, a high-speed camera is equipped to capture detailed structural changes during these experiments. These capabilities, in combination with the capability to capture spectroscopic and three-dimensional data, will accelerate intellectual output by empowering researchers to make new, atomic scale insights, with greatly improved temporal resolution, and at conditions relevant to material properties. With a broad spectrum of materials that can be studied with the instrument, and integration into the NSF funded Research Triangle Nanotechnology Network, the acquisition will impact research across departments at NCSU, in North Carolina, and beyond.