New view of microscopic processes

For more than 20 years, Matt Maschmann, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at University of Missouri, has worked with materials that require specialized technology — electron microscopes — to be seen by the human eye.

“When we deal with materials interacting on a nanoscale level,” he said, “we can’t physically see the processes that are occurring — like the charging and discharging of a battery, for instance — without the help of an electron microscope.”

Now, with the support of a two-year, $800,000 grant from the National Science Foundation and an additional $300,000 from the university, Maschmann and a team of researchers are purchasing equipment from Protochips Inc., which will allow them to conduct scientific experiments while simultaneously viewing reactions as they happen in real time under the lens of a Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra 300 transmission electron microscope, or TEM.

Xiaoqing He, a senior scientist at the Electron Microscopy Core Facility, works to adjust images from an electron microscope showing an experiment happening in real time. Image courtesy of Pate McCuien/University of Missouri

“The TEM is capable of letting researchers visualize reactions and material changes with up to atomic resolution, which is amazing,” he said. “But conducting experiments within a TEM environment is challenging because only small amounts of material will fit into a TEM chamber, and the system operates in a high-vacuum environment. Traditionally, researchers acquire TEM images of what a material looks like before and after an experiment, which leaves them to make an educated hypothesis about why and how a material has changed.”