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  • Review Article
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Time-resolved transmission electron microscopy for nanoscale chemical dynamics

Nature Reviews Chemistry volume 7, pages 256–272 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

The ability of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to image a structure ranging from millimetres to Ångströms has made it an indispensable component of the toolkit of modern chemists. TEM has enabled unprecedented understanding of the atomic structures of materials and how structure relates to properties and functions. Recent developments in TEM have advanced the technique beyond static material characterization to probing structural evolution on the nanoscale in real time. Accompanying advances in data collection have pushed the temporal resolution into the microsecond regime with the use of direct-electron detectors and down to the femtosecond regime with pump–probe microscopy. Consequently, studies have deftly applied TEM for understanding nanoscale dynamics, often in operando. In this Review, time-resolved in situ TEM techniques and their applications for probing chemical and physical processes are discussed, along with emerging directions in the TEM field.

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Fig. 1: Timescales for chemical processes.
Fig. 2: Methodologies for time-resolved transmission electron microscopy.
Fig. 3: Phase transformation dynamics probed by time-resolved transmission electron microscopic imaging, diffraction and spectroscopy.
Fig. 4: Charge–heat transfer dynamics and imaging of plasmonic fields studied by time-resolved transmission electron microscopy.
Fig. 5: Restructuring dynamics of individual nanoparticles.
Fig. 6: Time-resolved transmission electron microscopy imaging of nanomechanical dynamics.
Fig. 7: Transmission electron microscopy schematic and the future of this analytical technique.

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Acknowledgements

F.M.A. was supported by the Robert C. and Carolyn J. Springborn Endowment for Student Support Program at UIUC. P.K.J. was supported by a Guggenheim Fellowship. R.M.v.d.V. was, in part, supported by a Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry and Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

    Francis M. Alcorn, Prashant K. Jain & Renske M. van der Veen

  2. Department of Atomic-Scale Dynamics in Light-Energy Conversion, Photon Science Division, Helmholtz Center Berlin for Materials and Energy, Berlin, Germany

    Renske M. van der Veen

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Alcorn, F.M., Jain, P.K. & van der Veen, R.M. Time-resolved transmission electron microscopy for nanoscale chemical dynamics. Nat Rev Chem 7, 256–272 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-023-00469-y

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