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)计划资助，凯斯西储大学将获得一台可变压力扫描电子显微镜(SEM)。该仪器具有集成了外部刺激的探测器和平台，将使在手术中研究材料、设备和微电子机械系统(MEMS)的演变成为可能。该仪器将增强CWRU的研究和教学能力，并为周围的研究界提供独特的资源。该仪器将设在一般用户设施中，培训和服务工作由高素质的工作人员管理。来自工程、物理、化学和医学院的用户可以探索了解和改进从电池到高温传感器和执行器再到薄膜太阳能电池的各种设备所必需的基础材料科学。拟议的仪器将使学生能够接触到对所有材料系统的研究和开发有用的现代成像技术，从而增强学生的学习体验。特别是，建议的仪器的可变压力室减少了表征绝缘子所需的样品准备，从而使本科生能够专注于实验室课程的学习目标。该设备为行为模型的发展提供了一种直接观察动态机制的方法，并促进了我们对广泛的材料研究问题的科学理解。这些史无前例的实验将为机械信息理论的开发和测试带来新的基本见解，并由此产生新的设计规则和合理设计材料和器件的指导方针。特别是，它将使光电子器件中的界面演变机制、电化学反应以及材料系统中用于发电的高温条件下的微结构演变成为可能。在没有导电涂层的情况下对绝缘材料成像的能力为CWRU材料研究社区提供了一个新的机会，以探索材料合成和微结构演变的机制，这是目前利用现有扫描电子显微镜设备无法实现的。特别是，了解层状和架构化聚合物材料的界面如何控制光电和能量存储应用的寿命性能。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.