April AMP_Digital

A D V A N C E D M A T E R I A L S & P R O C E S S E S | A P R I L 2 0 1 9 1 1 Now, a team at DOE’s Lawrence Berke- ley National Laboratory, Calif., has de- signed a new kind of electron detector that captures all of the information in these interactions. This new tool, a superfast detector installed in February at Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry, captures images at a faster rate and reveals atomic-scale details across much larger areas than previously possible. Faster imaging can also reveal important changes that sam- ples are undergoing and provide mov- ies versus isolated snapshots. It could, for example, help scientists to better explore working battery and microchip components at the atomic scale before the onset of damage. The detector will enable scientists to record atomic-scale images with timing measured in micro- seconds—60 times faster than possible with existing detectors. The development of the new de- tector, known as the 4D Camera— Dynamic Diffraction Direct Detector, is the latest in a string of innovations in electron microscopy and atomic-scale imaging at Berkeley Lab that span sev- eral decades. lbl.gov. in the study of such dynamics across the materials science research field. uci.edu . OBSERVING NANOCRYSTAL FORMATION A breakthrough in directly imaging a platinum precursor compound and its dynamic transformation into nanocrys- tals has been achieved by scientists at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). The observation was made in real-time in the Irvine Materials Research Insti- tute’s (IMRI) state-of-the-art transmis- sion electron microscope facility. Knowing the dynamics and kinet- ics of materials transformation is use- ful in that it can lead to the ability to fine-tune substances to exhibit desired properties beneficial in fields ranging from energy conversion and storage to pharmaceuticals. Scientists previ- ously had difficulty imaging the nucle- ation and growth of novel crystalline nanomaterials because their chemical precursors are highly sensitive to the electron beams needed for atomic-res- olution microscopy. The researchers say this newmethod of achieving atom- ic-scale resolution of the phase change of platinum compounds from precur- sors to nanoclusters can be employed Xiaoqing Pan, director of the IMRI, says that the technique for imaging the transformation of a precursor compound containing platinum into nanocrystals can be applied to other materials science research pursuits. Courtesy of Steve Zylius/UCI.