Abstract:

 

The rapid increase of research in nanoscale devices and nanotechnology in the past few decades has revealed that nanomaterials may possess exceptional properties that are significantly different from the bulk counterpart, due to local rearrangements of the atoms at surfaces and defects. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is an indispensable tool when it comes to the characterization of nanomaterials, primarily due to its ability to resolve the local-structure of materials at the atomic-scale. To study dynamic processes, however, regular TEM experiments are inadequate, as they provide only before and after information rather than the real-time data essential to understanding a reaction or phase-transformation mechanism. This talk focuses on developments and applications of high- resolution and in situ TEM techniques to track the atomic rearrangements of nanomaterials in real-time, to determine the structure-property relationships of nanomaterials as they change during structural-transformations such as chemical reactions. The work discussed in this talk gives insights on the utilization of advanced electron microscopic techniques such as aberration corrected scanning TEM (STEM) and in situ TEM, to understand the aspects of solid-state chemistry.