Unveiling Innovation: Heating and Cooling Research in Liquid
The release of our newest product: Triton AXTM, unlocks a whole new range of applications that were out of reach before. Triton AX is the newest addition to our in situ product line is able to simultaneously run electrochemistry in liquid with heating and cooling! But what type of applications would you want to observe with this new product? The main three applications are:
Battery research
Electric vehicles (EVs) have seen a rise in popularity due to the drive to reduce air pollution. The main demands asked for in these vehicles are batteries with high specific energy, good charge retention capacity and no memory effects. Moreover, there is a need for electric cars to operate in a variety of environments, ranging from humid, dry but also elevated and subzero temperatures. As seen in last winter’s news articles (see below), the subzero temperatures were draining the electric car batteries leading to abandoned, dead EVs left at charging stations.
On top of this, runaway thermal temperatures are another issue that EVs face. Heat accumulation and local overheating during charging and discharging of batteries are the main causes of thermal runaway. There is clear need in research progression for battery operation in hot and cold environments.
Corrosion and coatings
Large factories with various applications can operate under high and low temperatures. Unfortunately, many metals that are being used in the factories will, over time, start degrading due to corrosive processes. Research mainly focuses on using a large variety of metals and coatings, including phase change materials (PCMs) to operate as thermal storage and management systems. However, there is still a need to understand how corrosive processes are effected under high and low temperatures and to develop better materials to withstand the large temperature differences!
Nanomaterial Synthesis
The synthesis of nanoparticles can be done with a large variety of methods, including sol-gel, precipitation or hot-injection methods. The main goal with most synthesis of nanomaterials is to have good control over the size and shape, with narrow particle size distributions. To obtain a control of the size and shape of nanoparticles, specific temperature ranges need to be applied. Elevated temperatures can cause a quick nucleation and growth process, ensuring a narrow particle size distribution. However, most research which can visualize nanoparticle growth pathways can only reach up to 100 ⁰C maximum, for nanoparticles <500 nm in size.
If you want to know how Triton AX works, read the rest of this newsletter!
NEW! Triton AX: Heating and Cooling Liquid Electrochemical System for TEM
At the M&M conference in Cleveland this July, we announced a brand new member of our in situ TEM family: Triton AX. Triton, the son of the Greek God Poseidon, opens up whole new realms of research avenues for liquid cell in the TEM. Triton AX enables both heating and cooling simultaneous to electrochemistry, with a wide range of operable temperatures: -50 °C to +300 °C.
Which application areas does Triton AX support?
• Batteries
• Electrocatalysts
• Corrosion
• Nanomaterial Synthesis
• Beam Sensitive Materials
Why is adding temperature to electrochemical experiments (or liquid experiments in general) important?
• To create an environment that is more relevant to these materials (think cold weather climates or high operating temperatures)
• To speed up or slow down reaction kinetics that are too slow or too fast to study in the TEM
• To mitigate beam damage (using cooling)
Key highlights of the Triton AX system:
• A combination of thermoelectric cooling and Protochips’ patented FrameHeaterTM E-chips work together to enable a wide temperature range
• Temperature is user-definable throughout the entire temperature range
• There is unlimited, vibration-free imaging time as there is no liquid nitrogen
• Crosstalk between temperature and electrochemical channels has been mitigated
• Perform EDS in a liquid-filled cell for true in situ chemical analysis due to the patented tip and E-chip designs
• Complete integration with AXON for ultimate stability (even during temperature transients), electron dose management, and metadata integration
A big thank you to Prof. Yao Yang from the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Cornell University who is a key partner of our providing thorough testing of the system with relevant materials!
Want to learn more about Triton AX? Download the brochure here and reach out to our team at contact@protochips.com who will be happy to answer questions or get you a quote!
Success Community Update
Where can you find product user manuals, step-by-step sample preparation guides, and answers to your in-situ questions? It’s all in the Protochips’ Success Community! If you are a Protochips’ user and haven’t already set up an account – you can register for one here, and gain access to a wealth of information designed to streamline your experience using our in-situ products.
Not a Protochips user? You can still create a Success Community account to gain access to our free AXON Studio analysis software, sample datasets, and in-situ TEM educational in- material available in our In-Situ TEM Studies section. Included in this section are webinars, customer Flash Talks, application notes and curated bibliographies. The Success Community is constantly growing, and we are regularly adding new material and updating existing guides to help you find the answers you need anytime you need it. To get the most out of the Success Community, you can browse the User Guide table of contents or use the search bar to find even more articles. Is something missing? If you’re having trouble locating the information or user guide you’re looking for, send us a message via support@protochips.com so that we can help you get the answer you need.
New Articles on the Success Community
AXON SAMPLE DATASET
• New Data Set Added: #6 FFT Analysis
Flash Talk 21: Liquid Metals – A Stability Boost for Zeolite Catalysts in Methanol
Flash Talk 20: Atomic Scale Observation of Structural Dynamics of Supported Gold Nanocatalysts
Flash Talk 19: Grain Boundary Detection for Bright-Field Transmission Electron Microscopy Images
Fusion AX: Electrical Experiment Best Practices1
Current Limits for Electrical & Electrothermal In-Situ TEM Experiments1
Creating & Saving Experiment Waveforms1,2
1Available to registered Fusion/Aduro Users 2Available to registered Poseidon Users
Featured Webinar
Click on the image below to watch the webinar
As we delve in further research of electrochemical reactions in the TEM with Triton AX, we’re highlighting a webinar from our Electrochemistry Series 2022. In this webinar, Prof. Yao Yang, explains fundamental concepts related to reference electrodes, and their utilization during in situ liquid microscopy. He shows how Pt electrodes, while widely employed in in situ work, act as pseudo-reference electrodes and how to account for this when benchmarking against other reference electrode materials. Using results from his 2023 Nature paper, he demonstrates using operando liquid-TEM to observe structural changes on nanometer sized copper nanograins during reduction of CO2 and using 4D-STEM in liquid!
Check Out All Our Webinar Series!
ELECTROCHEMISTRY IN THE TEM
Topic: A Webinar Series With Applications Examples for Batteries, Corrosion and Catalysis
Click here to watch!
SAMPLE PREPARATION IN IN SITU TEM
Topic: A Webinar Series on Tips and Tricks How to Prepare Samples for In Situ Microscopy, Including FIB Preparation
Click here to watch!
GO WITH THE FLOW
Topic: A Webinar Series Including Simulations and Experiments Using Protochips’ New Flow Management E-chips.
Click here to watch!
CLOSING THE PRESSURE GAP: CLOSED-CELL ENVIRONMENTAL TEM
Topic: A Webinar Series With Applications in Gas-Solid Phase Studies of Catalysts and High Temperature Materials
Click here to watch!
For more webinars go to https://www.protochips.com/news-and-events/
Distributor Spotlight
We’re thrilled to shine the light on Shanghai Winner International Trading Co., a new distributing partner of Protochips, headquartered in Shanghai, China. Under the leadership of CEO Michael Heng, Shanghai Winner features a skilled team of Sales Managers, Service Engineers, and Application Scientists with the combined experience of over 40 years in providing technical support to customers in the microscopy field. With a strong physical presence, coupled with a similarly strong social media presence (WeChat) and a state-of-theart demo facility at their headquarters, Shanghai Winner is ideally positioned to support both existing and future Protochips customers across the entirety of China.
Shanghai Winner https://www.ghitcsh.com michael@ghitcsh.com
What truly distinguishes Shanghai Winner however, is their proactive initiative to host Protochips Success Community content on their website, to ensure our customer support resources are more accessible to Chinese users. The Success Community is an online hub offering multimedia resources and 24/7 technical support to customers worldwide. Due to internet restrictions, the Success Community may sometimes be challenging to access, hence making this content available on their local platform, Shanghai Winner ensures that customers in China have seamless access to essential support materials at all times.
Protochips has full confidence in Shanghai Winner’s ability to serve the Chinese market, and we’re excited about the growth of this partnership. We look forward to seeing its positive impact on customer success and advancing the understanding of how in situ TEM workflows can support diverse research needs within the scientific community.
300th Poseidon AX Publication!!
In this study, Prof. Jianbo Wu, Prof. Xiaoqing Pan and Prof. Wenpei Gao looked at the corrosion of electrocatalysts during electrochemical operations using the Poseidon. Using electrochemical liquid cell transmission electron microscopy (LC-TEM) the authors have captured the intricate electrochemical corrosion of Pd@Pt core-shell octahedral nanoparticles, observing their transformation from solid particles into Pt nanoframes. During continuous in-situ cyclic voltammetry, redox peaks were recorded indicating an etching and deposition process. These experiments captured structural evolution, attributed site-specific Pt and Pd atomic dynamics to individual oxidation and reduction events. Pd atoms migrate from the core to the surface, followed by selective corrosion of Pt (111) terraces over edges or corners.
Click on the image below to read the full article
This pioneering work provides delivers sights into the surface reconstruction of nanoparticles during complex electrochemical processes, enhancing our understanding of catalyst degradation and paving the way for more resilient electrocatalysts.
Visit https://www.protochips.com/publications/ for more publications
Highlighted Flash Talk
One of our latest customer Flash Talks was recorded by Prof. Katayun Barmak of Columbia University. In this Flash Talk, Katy shared her work from her recent publication on automation of grain detection using machine learning. She utilized our machine vision software (AXON Synchronicity) in combination with the Fusion AX system to polycrystalline in platinum and palladium films at elevated temperatures while maintaining a completely stable image. They then applied a U-Net convolutional neural network that had been trained on bright field datasets of polycrystalline materials, to delineate grain boundaries and compared the resulting analysis to manually analyzed datasets.
https://academic.oup.com/mam/advance-article/doi/10.1093/micmic/ozad115/7422794
Summer Conference Recap
Summer 2024 was a busy one for microscopists with the Annual Microscopy & Microanalysis Meeting in Cleveland and the 17th European Microscopy Congress in Copenhagen taking place just a month apart. Both conferences were particularly exciting for the Protochips’ team as they coincided with the release of our revolutionary new in-situ system: Triton, a liquid-TEM system that enables electrochemistry experiments over a full temperature range from -50 to 300 °C!
During M&M we unveiled Triton and its capabilities over a series of Lunch and Learn sessions capping off its release celebration with an amazing presentation by Dr. Yao Yang of Cornell. As a beta-system tester, Dr. Yang presented how Triton had enabled him to observe dendrite growth over a range of temperatures while obtaining structural analysis with 4D STEM.
EMC was a great chance to meet with with our European customers face-to-face and further introduce Triton during a well-received seminar presented by Jennifer McConnell, and poster presented by our Product Specialist, Zayna King.
A big thanks to everyone who attended our seminars at both M&M and EMC! Connecting with our customers and the TEM community is critical to our ability to support your research and develop the cuttingedge products scientists need to continue making ground-breaking discoveries!
Where Have We Been?
1. John Hopkins University full Protochips suite installation with Evan Spadafora, Ben Addis, Dylan Wood and Nick Casaburri. 2. Visit of Shanghai Winner at Headquarters. 3. Madeline Dukes and Shanghai Winner at the Chinese Chemical Society, 4. Simon Ma and Zayna King at customer visits in China 5. and 6. The Protochips team at M&M, 7. Tenet Liu at a AIST for product installations, 8. Kate Stephens and Stamp Walden with customer Yao Yang for Triton AX Testing. 9. ICC Lyon with Nynke Krans, Jennifer McConnell and Tim Eldred, 10. Triton AX Testing at NC State University, 11. Evan Spadafora and Ben Addis att an installation, 12. The Protochips team at M&M, 13. First installation of Triton AX at Cornell University.
Kate Stephens Product Applications Engineer Raleigh, North Carolina
Kate Stephens joined Protochips as an applications scientist in 2018 after completing her graduate degree in Materials Science at Duke University in North Carolina. Eventually, her role evolved, and she joined the New Product Development team where she is now a major contributor of our product development activities.
In the product development team, Kate’s efforts have been instrumental to the rapid development and testing of new products such as Triton AX, but also in software development with AXON Synchronicity and AXON Studio. She is the first
Employee Spotlight
person to test practically all our prototype holders, E-chips, and software modules, working directly with key “beta” customers and creating the datasets and materials that we need to launch these products. Additionally, she serves as software team’s “voice of the microscopist” to bridge the gap between software developers and the needs of microscopists.
Do you think you have seen Kate’s face before? That is definitely possible, as she is the face of Protochips - not just because she appears in most of our marketing videos and brochures, but because she always brings energy, enthusiasm, and dedication to all of her work. Outside the office, Kate enjoys spending time with her husband and 17 month-old son, and she runs the annual Protochips fantasy football league.
Click
FIB STUB
AXON STUDIO NOW ON THE MACOS APP STORE
The shadow mask offers precise patterning and deposition of materials onto substrates and can be used by:
• Liquid dropcasting
• Powder (dry) deposition
• Sputter coating
AXON STUDIO NOW IN MICROSOFT STORE
Prof. Per Persson Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology (IFM) Thin Film Physics (TUNNF) Linköping University
Protochips holders have enabled us to apply a diverse range of environmental conditions to our materials with remarkable flexibility. Combined with prompt support, they have significantly deepened our understanding of low-dimensional materials, opening doors to previously uncharted fields
The FIB stub aids in the preparation of FIB lamella on our E-chips
or scan the QR code to order
Click or scan the QR code to download for MS
AXON Studio lets you process all your TEM data, from plotting to making videos
SHADOW MASK
Click or scan the QR code to download for MacOS
Click or scan the QR code to order
Srot, V. et al. (2023) Microsc. Microanal., 29, 596–605
Where Are We Based?
AMERICAS
RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA, USA PROTOCHIPS HQ, SERVICE
SOUTH CAROLINA, USA APPLICATIONS
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA SALES
AUSTIN, TEXAS SALES
ATLANTA, GEORGIA SALES
EMEA
UTRECHT, NETHERLANDS APPLICATIONS
BERLIN, GERMANY SERVICE
LONDON, ENGLAND SALES
Upcoming Events
ASIA
SHANGHAI, CHINA SERVICE
TOKYO, JAPAN APPLICATIONS
DISTRIBUTORS
CLICK HERE TO FIND OUR DISTRIBUTORS ON THE WEBSITE
JASIS
September 4 - 6, 2024
Tokyo, Japan
We are joining JASIS in Japan in September this year! If you are interested in talking to us, please visit our booth!
FEMMS 2024
September 29 - October 4, 2024
Catania, Italy
ECS Fall
October 6 - 11, 2024 Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
EM China
October 17 - 21, 2024
Dongguan, Guangdong, China
MRS Fall
December 1 - 6, 2024
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
This Newsletter is Brought to You By
Senior Manager, Marketing and Product Management
I have been working at Protochips for 6 years as a product manager and recently acquired the marketing team. My background is in chemistry and I previously worked as a forensic chemist for the US government. I love hiking, especially in the mountains despite being scared of heights!
I started working at Protochips in 2021 and have enjoyed every moment so far. My background is in catalysis, liquid cell TEM and I expand my knowledge by talking to users in the field. I love learning new and weird things, that’s why I do pole dancing, cooking and playing with my pet rats on the weekends!
I started working at Protochips in early 2023 and have loved every minute of it ever since. I earned a doctoral degree in Cell Biology from UNC-Chapel Hill, after working in the biotech industry. I enjoy traveling, reading, and trying new cuisines but visiting my family in Saint Lucia will always be at the top of my list!
I have been at Protochips almost 15 years after completing my PhD with Dr. Niels de Jonge. I have had a front row seat to growth and development of both the field and Protochips as a company. I enjoy collecting vintage dolls and crafting miniature clothing and accessories.
Madeline Dukes Senior Application Scientist and Training Specialist
Zayna King Product Specialist
Nynke A. Krans Regional Applications and Marketing Manager
Jennifer McConnell
