Abstract:
Can Single Crystals Be Studied in Liquids Without Liquid Diffraction Obscuring the Signal?
3D electron diffraction has become routine for determining the atomic structure of nanocrystals. However, extending these measurements to native or dynamic liquid environments remains challenging due to the vacuum requirements of the electron microscope, beam-liquid interactions, and strong background scattering. In conventional liquid cells, uncontrolled bulging and Brownian motion of suspended nanocrystals often lead to severe multiple scattering and uninterpretable diffraction data.
In this webinar, we show how suspended nanochannels provide a well-defined and controllable liquid thickness, enabling quantitative electron diffraction from liquids while minimizing multiple scattering. By validating and analysing the liquid diffraction signal itself, we demonstrate how its contribution can be understood and accounted for when probing nanocrystals submerged in a liquid environment. Operating at sufficiently low liquid thickness allows crystal diffraction to remain interpretable, paving the way for 3D electron diffraction in liquids.
We present liquid electron diffraction results from water and non-polar solvents confined within suspended nanochannels, highlighting how different liquid thicknesses influences the quantitative analysis of the liquid scattering signal. By carefully controlling the experimental conditions, we demonstrate strategies for in situ crystallization that allow for the growth and observation of nanocrystals directly within the liquid environment. Using these approaches, we successfully solved the structures of different polymorphic forms of glycine in liquid, revealing how variations in hydration within the nanochannels influence crystal formation, molecular packing, and polymorphic preferability. These results demonstrate the potential of nanochannel liquid phase electron microscopy to probe both liquid structure and the atomic arrangement of crystals under realistic, confined conditions.
Time and date
February 24th, 17 CET / 11 AM EST
