MRI: Acquisition of a Cryogenic, Aberration-Corrected Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope for Advanced Materials Research and Education

MRI：采购低温、像差校正扫描透射电子显微镜，用于先进材料研究和教育

基本信息

批准号：
1429155
负责人：
Lena Kourkoutis
金额：
$ 269.84万
依托单位：
Cornell University
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2014
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2014-09-01 至 2016-08-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1429155&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
MRI Acquisition Cryogenic Aberration Corrected

项目摘要

Nontechnical: This award supports the acquisition of a first-of-its-kind electron microscope that allows materials to be studied in their natural environment using an electron beam that can be focused down to a subatomic spot, producing three-dimensional images of their structure and chemistry. While traditional electron microscope studies are limited to only materials that can survive in a hard vacuum comparable to that of outer space, this new instrument will, for the first time, allow researchers to take snapshots of both solids and liquids, and more importantly see the processes that occur at interfaces between solids and liquids stabilized by snap freezing. Understanding such interfaces has a wide-ranging impact, from enabling scientists and engineers to design more durable batteries, more efficient catalysts for automotive fuel cells, to better retain nutrients in soil. To meet the huge demand for this capability both across campus, and also from industries and universities across the country, this instrument will be available as part of Cornell Center for Materials Research (CCMR) to researchers and students across campus as well as from other universities, industry and national labs. The microscope will also provide hands-on research opportunities for undergraduates, particularly under-represented minorities and women as part of the CCMR Research Experience for Undergraduates program, offer middle school girls the opportunity to experience the excitement of science as part of the Expanding Your Horizons program, and support K-12 teachers development through CCMR's Research Experience for Teachers program, and through MicroWorld, a microscopy-based activity that will be adapted to meet the challenges of the Next Generation Science Standards. This instrument will have broad impacts on science research and training by providing unique characterization capabilities of materials and devices and by educating a new generation of electron microscopists, which will lead to major scientific and technical advances in broad areas of research that are critical to the fulfillment of the nation?s research agenda, and the maintenance of the country's competitive position in critically important fields of science and technology. Technical: Recent advances in electron microscopy design have opened a new era of atomic resolution imaging and spectroscopy inside solids. Liquid/solid interfaces have yet to be imaged at high spatial resolution, but play a critical role in a range of biological, chemical and physical processes from catalysis to electrochemical energy storage to the formation of biominerals. With the ability to study liquids snap-frozen in a vitreous state, this cryo-STEM, combining the low-vibration cryo-stages from biology with the resolution-enhancing aberration-correctors from materials science, will enable presently unfeasible structural and spectroscopic studies of electrode/electrolyte interfaces in batteries and fuel cells, organic/mineral interfaces in breast cancer tumors and calcified aortic valves, and liquid/mineral complexes in soils. More generally, this class of "hard/soft" interfaces between minerals and liquids or soft tissue has not been explored at high spatial resolution, as the methods for studying the "hard" and "soft" components have been incompatible. Operating at cryogenic temperatures will also allow users to gain unprecedented insights into the macromolecular organization of cellular environments at nanometer resolution and to access a new range of emergent electronic states and phases in artificially engineered materials and strongly-correlated systems. With the ability to capture the early stages of nucleation at interfaces, long unanswered questions in fields across multiple disciplines from biomineralization to energy conversion and storage, complex electronic materials and carbon sequestration using soils can be addressed.

非技术性：该奖项支持购买首个电子显微镜，可以使用电子束在自然环境中研究材料，电子束可以聚焦到亚原子点，产生其结构的三维图像和化学。虽然传统的电子显微镜研究仅限于能够在与外太空相当的硬真空中生存的材料，但这种新仪器将首次允许研究人员拍摄固体和液体的快照，更重要的是看到发生在通过速冻稳定的固体和液体界面处的过程。了解这些界面具有广泛的影响，从使科学家和工程师能够设计更耐用的电池、更高效的汽车燃料电池催化剂，到更好地保留土壤中的养分。为了满足校园内以及全国各地的行业和大学对此功能的巨大需求，该仪器将作为康奈尔材料研究中心 (CCMR) 的一部分向校园内以及其他大学的研究人员和学生提供、行业和国家实验室。作为 CCMR 本科生研究体验计划的一部分，该显微镜还将为本科生，特别是代表性不足的少数族裔和女性提供实践研究机会，作为“拓展视野”的一部分，为中学生提供体验科学兴奋的机会计划，并通过 CCMR 的教师研究经验计划和 MicroWorld（一项基于显微镜的活动，将适应下一代科学标准的挑战）支持 K-12 教师的发展。该仪器将通过提供材料和器件的独特表征能力以及教育新一代电子显微镜专家，对科学研究和培训产生广泛影响，这将导致广泛研究领域的重大科学和技术进步，这对于实现这一目标至关重要。国家的研究议程，以及维持国家在至关重要的科学技术领域的竞争地位。技术：电子显微镜设计的最新进展开启了固体内部原子分辨率成像和光谱学的新时代。液/固界面尚未以高空间分辨率成像，但在从催化到电化学能量存储再到生物矿物形成的一系列生物、化学和物理过程中发挥着关键作用。这种冷冻 STEM 能够研究玻璃状态下的速冻液体，将生物学的低振动冷冻阶段与材料科学的分辨率增强像差校正器相结合，将能够实现目前不可行的结构和光谱研究。电池和燃料电池中的电极/电解质界面、乳腺癌肿瘤和钙化主动脉瓣中的有机/矿物质界面以及土壤中的液体/矿物质复合物。更一般地说，矿物与液体或软组织之间的此类“硬/软”界面尚未以高空间分辨率进行探索，因为研究“硬”和“软”成分的方法不兼容。在低温下操作还将使用户能够以纳米分辨率获得对细胞环境大分子组织的前所未有的洞察，并获得人工工程材料和强相关系统中一系列新的新兴电子状态和相。通过捕获界面成核的早期阶段的能力，可以解决从生物矿化到能量转换和存储、复杂电子材料和利用土壤固碳等多个学科领域长期悬而未决的问题。