A dedicated specimen holder (Protochips) allows the exposure of the object to a gas atmosphere in the pressure range 0 – 1 bar. The gas recipient consists of two silicon nitride membranes, one above and one below the object with a distance of … mm. The membranes protect the vacuum of the TEM and allow the transmission of the electron beam without much interaction. The object can be heated up to 1000°C. Gas reactions of nanoparticles can thus be studied with atomic resolution.
The system has been installed in 2014. The first results will come soon.
