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

这一重大研究仪器奖支持北卡罗来纳州立大学(NCSU)购买一台可研究多种跨学科材料的透射式电子显微镜。该显微镜可以对能量存储和转换、生物兼容性、环境调节以及表现出超导等奇异性质的材料进行跨学科研究。虽然透射电子显微镜通常在室温和高真空下操作，但这种显微镜可以在从低温到1000摄氏度的温度范围内、在各种液体中或在各种气体中对样品进行成像。这些条件可以与材料运行的条件密切匹配，从而提供新的科学见解。在NCSU的几个活动中，包括让K-12学生有机会亲身体验科学仪器，瞬变电子技术被融入其中。来自显微镜的结果也被纳入了一个核心的教育推广计划，该计划通过无畏的艺术媒介向普通公众展示原子分辨率电子显微镜。这个重大研究仪器奖支持北卡罗来纳州立大学(NCSU)购买一台透射式电子显微镜(TEM)，该显微镜配备了在动态现象发生的条件下研究硬物质和软物质的设备。该仪器支持在各种条件下进行快速原位成像，包括低温(低至低温)、加热、偏置、机械加载、气体和液体，从而促进了研究三角中的新研究。此外，还配备了一台高速摄像机来捕捉这些实验过程中详细的结构变化。这些能力与捕获光谱和三维数据的能力相结合，将使研究人员能够在与材料性质相关的条件下做出新的原子尺度的见解，从而大大提高时间分辨率，从而加快智力输出。凭借可用该仪器研究的广泛材料，并整合到NSF资助的研究三角纳米技术网络中，此次收购将影响NCSU、北卡罗来纳州和其他地区各部门的研究。

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.