MRI: Acquisition of an SEM instrumented to conduct in-operando observations of materials performance under external stimuli

该奖项由主要研究仪器（MRI）项目资助，凯斯西储大学将获得一台变压扫描电子显微镜（SEM）。该仪器的特点是集成了外部刺激的探测器和阶段，可以对材料、器件和微机电系统（MEMS）的演变进行现场研究。该仪器将提高整个CWRU的研究和教学能力，并为周围的研究界提供独特的资源。该仪器将设在一个一般用户设施内，培训和服务工作将由非常合格的工作人员管理。来自工程、物理、化学和医学院的用户可以探索必要的基础材料科学，以理解和改进从电池到高温传感器和致动器到薄膜太阳能电池的各种设备。该仪器将通过让学生获得对所有材料系统的研究和开发有用的当代成像技术来增强学生的学习体验。特别是，该仪器的可变压力室减少了表征绝缘体所需的样品制备，从而使本科生能够专注于实验课程的学习目标。该设备提供了一种直接观察行为模型发展的动态机制的方法，并促进了我们对广泛材料研究问题的科学理解。这种前所未有的实验将为机械理论的发展和测试带来新的基本见解，并由此为材料和设备的合理工程提供新的设计规则和指导方针。特别是，它将使光电器件中的界面演化机制成为可能；电化学反应;以及在高温条件下能源生成材料系统的微观结构演变。对无导电涂层绝缘体材料成像的能力为CWRU材料研究界提供了一个新的机会，可以探索现有SEM设备目前无法实现的材料合成和微观结构演变机制。特别是，了解层状和结构聚合物材料的界面如何控制光电和储能应用的寿命性能。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With this award funded by the Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Program, Case Western Reserve University will acquire a variable pressure Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The instrument features detectors and stages integrated with external stimuli that will enable in-operando studies of the evolution of materials, devices, and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS). This instrument will enhance the research and teaching capabilities across CWRU, and provide a unique resource to the surrounding research community. This instrument will be located in a general user facility, with training and service work managed by highly qualified staff. Users from across Engineering, Physics, Chemistry, and the School of Medicine can explore the fundamental materials science necessary to understand and improve devices ranging from batteries to high-temperature sensors and actuators to thin-film solar cells. The proposed instrument will enhance the student learning experience by giving students access to contemporary imaging techniques useful for research and development across all material systems. In particular, the variable pressure chamber of the proposed instrument reduces the sample preparation needed to characterize insulators, thus allowing undergraduate students to focus on the learning objective of the laboratory course. The equipment provides a method to directly observe dynamic mechanisms for the development of models of behaviors and advance our scientific understanding in a broad range of materials research problems. Such unprecedented experiments will lead to new fundamental insights for the development and testing of mechanistically-informed theories, and from them, new design rules and guidelines for rational engineering of materials and devices. In particular, it will enable mechanisms of interface evolution in optoelectronic devices; electrochemical reactions; and microstructural evolution under elevated-temperature conditions in material systems for energy generation. The capability to image insulator material without conductive coating provides a new opportunity to the CWRU materials research community, to explore mechanisms of material synthesis and microstructural evolution that are not currently possible with existing SEM equipment. In particular, understanding how the interfaces of layered and architectured polymer materials control lifetime performance for optoelectronic and energy storage applications.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.