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Precise Drift Tracking for In Situ Transmission Electron Microscopy via a Thon-Ring Based Sample Position Measurement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2022

Fan Zhang ,
Xiaoben Zhang ,
Zhenghao Jia  and
Wei Liu Open the ORCID record for Wei Liu [Opens in a new window]
Fan Zhang
Affiliation:
Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, Liaoning 116023, China University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101408, China
Xiaoben Zhang
Affiliation:
Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, Liaoning 116023, China University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101408, China
Zhenghao Jia
Affiliation:
Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, Liaoning 116023, China
Wei Liu*
Affiliation:
Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, Liaoning 116023, China University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101408, China
*
*Corresponding author: Wei Liu, E-mail: weiliu@dicp.ac.cn
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Abstract

Visualizing how a catalyst behaves during chemical reactions using in situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is crucial for understanding the activity origin and guiding performance optimization. However, the sample drifts as temperature changes during in situ reaction, which weakens the resolution and stability of TEM imaging, blocks insights into the dynamic details of catalytic reaction. Herein, a Thon-ring based sample position measurement (TSPM) was developed to track the sample height variation during in situ TEM observation. Drifting characteristics for three commercially available nanochips were studied, showing large biases in aspects of shifting modes, expansion heights, as well as the thermal conduction hysteresis during rapid heating. Particularly, utilizing the TSPM method, for the first time, the gas layer thickness inside a gas-cell nanoreactor was precisely determined, which varies with reaction temperature and gas pressure in a linear manner with coefficients of ~8 nm/°C and ~50 nm/mbar, respectively. Following drift prediction of TSPM, fast oxidation kinetics of a Ni particle was tracked in real time for 12 s at 500°C. This TSPM method is expected to facilitate the functionality of automatic target tracing for in situ microscopy applications when feedback to hardware control of the microscope.

Keywords

contrast transfer functiongas layer thicknessin situ TEMsample height drift
Type
Software and Instrumentation
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 28 , Issue 6 , December 2022 , pp. 1945 - 1951
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Microscopy Society of America

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