Environmental News Network - Scientists Capture 3D Images of Nanoparticles, Atom by Atom, With Unprecedented Precision

Details: By Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; 16.Apr

Since their invention in the 1930s, electron microscopes have helped scientists peer into the atomic structure of ordinary materials like steel, and even exotic graphene.

Mohammad Munshed

Since their invention in the 1930s, electron microscopes have helped scientists peer into the atomic structure of ordinary materials like steel, and even exotic graphene. But despite these advances, such imaging techniques cannot precisely map out the 3D atomic structure of materials in a liquid solution, such as a catalyst in a hydrogen fuel cell, or the electrolytes in your car’s battery.

Now, researchers at Berkeley Lab, in collaboration with the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) in South Korea, Monash University in Australia, and UC Berkeley, have developed a technique that produces atomic-scale 3D images of nanoparticles tumbling in liquid between sheets of graphene, the thinnest material possible. Their findings were reported April 3 in the journal Science.

“This is an exciting result. We can now measure atomic positions in three dimensions down to a precision six times smaller than hydrogen, the smallest atom,” said study co-author Peter Ercius, a staff scientist at Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry.

Image Credit: Marilyn Chung

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Scientists Capture 3D Images of Nanoparticles, Atom by Atom, With Unprecedented Precision