High-resolution transmission electron microscopy: the ultimate nanoanalytical technique

Abstract

To be able to determine the elemental composition and morphology of individual nanoparticles consisting of no more than a dozen or so atoms that weigh a few zeptograms (10⁻²¹ g) is but one of the attainments of modern electron microscopy. With slightly larger specimens (embracing a few unit cells of the structure) their symmetry, crystallographic phase, unit-cell dimension, chemical composition and often the valence state (from parallel electron spectroscopic measurements) of the constituent atoms may also be determined using a scanning beam of electrons of ca. 0.5 nm diameter. Nowadays electron crystallography, which treats the digital data of electron diffraction (ED) and high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) images of minute (ca. 10⁻¹⁸g) specimens in a quantitatively rigorous manner, solves hitherto unknown structures just as X-ray diffraction does with bulk single crystals. In addition, electron tomography (see cover photograph and its animation) enables a three-dimensional picture of the internal structure of minute objects, such as nanocatalysts in a single pore, as well as structural faults such as micro-fissures, to be constructed with a resolution of 1 nm from an angular series of two-dimensional (projected) images. Very recently (since this article was first written) a new meaning has been given to electron crystallography as a result of the spatio-temporal resolution of surface phenomena achieved on a femtosecond timescale.