With this award from the Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program Professor Vincent Remcho and colleagues Chih-hung Chang, Jamie Kruzic, Mas Subramanian and John Conley from Oregon State University will acquire a high resolution field emission transmission electron microscope (TEM). The proposal will impact materials research in a large number of areas, including studies of ultra-high temperature alloys, advanced ceramics, steels, bulk metallic glasses, solar energy materials, thin film transistors, dielectrics, nonlinear optical materials, microfluidic devices for applications in chemical analysis, the effect of nanocrystals on polymer matrices, the composition of atmospheric aerosol particles, and the structures of novel marine organisms.
A transmission electron microscope is one of the most powerful tools available for the characterization of materials. A beam of electrons penetrates a thin layer of sample resulting in an image of the sample. The electron microscope can provide higher resolution and maginfication than a microscope using light to probe the material. It can provide useful details of the material down to near atomic size levels. This instrumentation will provide microscopy training and research opportunities to large numbers of students across many fields including chemistry, biology, physics, materials and engineering.
This Major Research Instrumentation grant from the NSF, matched with internal University support, a grant from the Murdock Charitable Trust, and support from the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute, allowed for us to accomplish our goal: to add cutting-edge TEM capability at OSU that would be a regional benefit for educators, scholars, entrepreneurs, and businesses. The grant allowed for us to purchase, install, and appropriately adapt our facilities to support an FEI Titan transmission electron microscope with ChemiSTEM capability and an advanced EELS system that complements our growing and thriving EM facility. This impressive instrument will meet our current and anticipated TEM imaging needs (and certain characterization needs) for some years. The equipment was installed over an 18-month period in our new EM facility space in the Linus Pauling Science Center(LPSC), a 105,000-square-foot, centrally located, state-of-the-art science facility for research and teaching. LPSC houses state-of-the-art green chemistry laboratory spaces, a 180-seat classroom, conference rooms, and our NMR and EM core laboratories. Thus the new TEM is located to generate maximal student exposure and access. The EM facility features an open design, with a meeting area, TEM room with field cancellation, SEM room with field cancellation for three instruments, and a sample preparation room with diverse capabilities that are evolving to allow for samples from an expanding user base. An open house and dedication was held after full instrument commissioning. The event was open to all and provided the campus community and the general public an opportunity to see and even work with modern electron microscopes. We maintain an up-to-date web site (www.science.oregonstate.edu/emfacility) for the facility with current information on all instruments and supporting facilities, and provide electronic access for scheduling beam time. The user base is quite broad, as indicated below, and communication with the user base and prospective users is a priority. Our specific objectives were met with the purchase of an FEI Titan 80-200 transmission electron microscope with ChemiSTEM capability and an advanced EELS system. Our new TEM is one of two like it in North America at this time, and offers unique EELS capability relative to it’s sibling. It also is an excellent complement to other TEM instruments in the region. The new instrument makes it possible to do chemical analysis with sub-nanometer resolution and is especially suited to investigating surfaces at atomic resolution with the ability for element-specific information gathering. The OSU EM Facility currently serves over 100 researchers throughout OSU, and many users beyond OSU. Facility users are from: OSU’s Colleges of Agricultural Sciences, Pharmacy, Science, Engineering, Veterinary Medicine, and Forestry OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center OSU’s Linus Pauling Institute University of Oregon Portland State University Eastern Oregon University Small businesses throughout Oregon and Washington Established corporations with operations in the western states. These users include faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, postdoctoral researchers, entrepreneurs, and industry researchers. The facility educates and trains new users at all levels, and allows us to interact with and provide services to peers from all walks of professional life. Students must complete three two-hour training sessions before they are released onto the TEM. The training is instrument specific. Additional introductory and advanced instruction in electron microscopy is offered in accordance with user interest.
