Ummethala Govind, Jada Ravi, Dutta-Gupta Shourya, Park Junbeom, Tavabi Amir H, Basak Shibabrata, Hooley Robert, Sun Hongyu, Pérez Garza H Hugo, Eichel Rüdiger-A, Dunin-Borkowski Rafal E, Malladi Sai Rama Krishna
Department of Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, Kandi, Sangareddy, Telangana, India.
Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons and Peter Grünberg Institute, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich, Germany.
Commun Chem. 2025 Jan 9;8(1):8. doi: 10.1038/s42004-025-01407-3.
Liquid cell transmission electron microscopy (LCTEM) is a powerful technique for investigating crystallisation dynamics with nanometre spatial resolution. However, probing phenomena occurring in liquids while mixing two precursor solutions has proven extremely challenging, requiring sophisticated liquid cell designs. Here, we demonstrate that introducing and withdrawing solvents in sequence makes it possible to maintain optimal imaging conditions while mixing liquids in a commercial liquid cell. We succeeded in visualising a fast nanoscale crystallisation mechanism when an organic molecule of R-BINOL-CN dissolved in chloroform interacts with methanol. The scanning transmission electron microscopy images recorded in real-time during the interaction of the two volatile solvents reveal the formation of chain-like structures of R-BINOL-CN particles, whereas they coalesce to form single large particles when methanol is absent. Our approach of mixing liquids establishes a platform for novel LCTEM studies of a wide range of electron-beam-sensitive materials, including drug molecules, polymers and molecular amphiphiles.
液体池透射电子显微镜（LCTEM）是一种用于研究具有纳米空间分辨率的结晶动力学的强大技术。然而，在混合两种前驱体溶液时探测液体中发生的现象已被证明极具挑战性，需要复杂的液体池设计。在此，我们证明了依次引入和抽出溶剂能够在商用液体池中混合液体时保持最佳成像条件。当溶解在氯仿中的R-BINOL-CN有机分子与甲醇相互作用时，我们成功地观察到了快速的纳米级结晶机制。在两种挥发性溶剂相互作用期间实时记录的扫描透射电子显微镜图像显示，R-BINOL-CN颗粒形成了链状结构，而在没有甲醇的情况下它们会聚结形成单个大颗粒。我们的液体混合方法为包括药物分子、聚合物和分子两亲物在内的各种对电子束敏感材料的新型LCTEM研究建立了一个平台。
