Hutzler Andreas, Fritsch Birk, Jank Michael P M, Branscheid Robert, Spiecker Erdmann, März Martin
Electron Devices (LEB), Department of Electrical, Electronic and Communication Engineering, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg;
Electron Devices (LEB), Department of Electrical, Electronic and Communication Engineering, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg.
J Vis Exp. 2019 Jul 15(149). doi: 10.3791/59751.
The fabrication and preparation of graphene-supported microwell liquid cells (GSMLCs) for in situ electron microscopy is presented in a stepwise protocol. The versatility of the GSMLCs is demonstrated in the context of a study about etching and growth dynamics of gold nanostructures from a HAuCl4 precursor solution. GSMLCs combine the advantages of conventional silicon- and graphene-based liquid cells by offering reproducible well depths together with facile cell manufacturing and handling of the specimen under investigation. The GSMLCs are fabricated on a single silicon substrate which drastically reduces the complexity of the manufacturing process compared to two-wafer-based liquid cell designs. Here, no bonding or alignment process steps are required. Furthermore, the enclosed liquid volume can be tailored to the respective experimental requirements by simply adjusting the thickness of a silicon nitride layer. This enables a significant reduction of window bulging in the electron microscope vacuum. Finally, a state-of-the-art quantitative evaluation of single particle tracking and dendrite formation in liquid cell experiments using only open source software is presented.
本文以分步方案介绍了用于原位电子显微镜的石墨烯支撑微孔液体池（GSMLC）的制备和准备。在一项关于从HAuCl4前驱体溶液中蚀刻和生长金纳米结构的动力学研究中，展示了GSMLC的多功能性。GSMLC结合了传统硅基和石墨烯基液体池的优点，提供了可重复的阱深，同时便于细胞制造和对被研究样本的处理。GSMLC是在单个硅衬底上制造的，与基于双晶片的液体池设计相比，这大大降低了制造过程的复杂性。在此，不需要键合或对准工艺步骤。此外，通过简单地调整氮化硅层的厚度，可以根据各自的实验要求定制封闭的液体体积。这使得电子显微镜真空中窗口凸起显著减少。最后，本文介绍了仅使用开源软件对液体池实验中的单粒子跟踪和枝晶形成进行的最新定量评估。
