transmission electron microscopy as a toolbox for the emerging science of nanometallurgy.

Potential applications of nanomaterials range from electronics to environmental technology, thus a better understanding of their manufacturing and manipulation is of paramount importance. The present study demonstrates a methodology for the use of metallic nanomaterials as reactants to examine nanoalloying within a transmission electron microscope. The method is further utilised as a starting point of a metallurgical toolbox, to study subsequent alloying of materials by using a nanoscale-sized chemical reactor for nanometallurgy.

A Fast and Implantation-Free Sample Production Method for Large Scale Electron-Transparent Metallic Samples Destined for MEMS-Based In Situ S/TEM Experiments.

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are currently supporting ground-breaking basic research in materials science and metallurgy as they allow in situ experiments on materials at the nanoscale within electron microscopes in a wide variety of different conditions such as extreme materials dynamics under ultrafast heating and quenching rates as well as in complex electro-chemical environments. Electron-transparent sample preparation for MEMS e-chips remains a challenge for this technology as the existing methodologies can introduce contaminants, thus disrupting the experiments and the analysis of results. Herein we introduce a methodology for simple and fast electron-transparent sample preparation for MEMS e-chips without significant contamination.