(Invited) Visualizing Electrochemical Reactions at the Nanoscale By in-Situ TEM

Abstract

Over the past five years, we have witnessed a rapid growth in liquid and gas flow holders for TEM and X-ray microscopes. These holders have enabled direct imaging of material transformations in liquid and gaseous environments with submicron-scale to atomic-scale spatial resolution. In particular, research regarding electrode materials in lithium ion batteries and nanocatalysts in heterogeneous catalysis has greatly benefited from the emergence of these capabilities. Despite their initial success in in-situ battery studies, similar class of problems in electrocatalysis has been rarely addressed using existing liquid electrochemical holders. In this talk, I will showcase the capability of direct nanoscale visualization of electrochemical formation and degradation of electrocatalysts utilizing an operando TEM liquid holder and I will also discuss existing challenges that the in-situ EM field need to address. Acknowledgement The research used resources of the National Synchrotron Light Source II and the Center for Functional Nanomaterials, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Brookhaven National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-SC0012704. The electron microscopy experiment was performed at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials. This research is also partially supported by Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD15-037) program at the Brookhaven National Laboratory.