York microscopy technology could aid drug and energy research

The work being carried out at York is opening up new opportunities for observing and understanding the role of atoms in reactions in many areas of the physical sciences. It is also said to have implications for new medicines and new energy sources.

Observing reacting atoms has been problematic because - when studying reactions at the catalyst surface - scientists usually have to look into idealised systems under vacuum conditions rather than examining the reality of an industrial catalytic process in a gas environment.

However, in what is claimed to be a world first, the directors of the York JEOL Nanocentre, Prof Ed Boyes and Prof Pratibha Gai, have developed atomic resolution in-situ aberration corrected environmental scanning transmission electron microscopy technology (in-situ AC-ESTEM) for catalyst reaction studies in realistic reaction conditions.

With the new technology it is now possible to make observations in dynamic in-situ experiments with controlled gas reaction environments at initial operating temperatures of up to 500^oC under transient reaction conditions.