Installing South Korea’s second Stream system at Seoul National University

Installing South Korea’s second Stream system at Seoul National University

by | Jan 27, 2021 | Interview, Partnerships, Stream

DENSsolutions Installing South Korea's second Stream system at Seoul National University

The team at SNU (From left to right) Prof Jungwon Park, Back Kyu Choi, Minyoung Lee and Junyoung Heo.

With the second ever installation of a Stream LPEM Solution in South Korea, we get an insider’s look at the microscopy laboratory at the Seoul National University. We interviewed Prof Jungwon Park from the National Center for Inter-University Research Facilities to find out how our solutions will benefit their research when investigating synthetic mechanisms of inorganic nanocrystals.

Can you tell us a bit about the microscopy facility at Seoul National University SNU?

Seoul National University has a shared research facility called NCIRF (National Center for Inter-University Research Facilities) that has specialities in various fields of analysis, such as organic, inorganic, surface analysis, and x-ray techniques. NCIRF also has a special team in electron microscopy, which provides SEM, TEM, and other pretreatment equipment including FIB and Nanomill.

This shared facility was established around 30 years ago. Recently, two spherical aberration-corrected TEM and STEM, JEM-ARM200F, were installed, providing atomic-resolution electron microscopy images. Also, in our own center, the Institute for Basic Science Center for Nanoparticle Research, we have our own JEOL JEM-2100F TEM in our building which is utilized routinely for a lot of in situ EM studies.

What type of applications are your users interested in with regards to the Stream system installed?

Our users are interested in various nanocrystal dynamics. Regarding the Stream system, we are expecting to investigate the synthetic mechanism of colloidal inorganic nanocrystals by changing the liquid cell temperature and injected precursor solution. Also, we are planning to investigate transformation phenomena of colloidal nanocrystals in various liquid environments. Moreover, we are expecting to observe polymers or proteins in liquid, and their stimuli-responsive reactions using the Stream system.

What particular features of the DENSsolutions Stream solution attracted you to the system?

When it comes to liquid cell TEM experiments, it is crucial to ensure that a controlled amount of liquid is injected to the desired position, while minimizing the decrease in spatial resolution of TEM stemming from the window bulging effect. In this sense, the Stream system by DENSsolutions was quite attractive to us.
With ensured liquid flow from Nano-cell design, controlled injection of liquid, as well as mitigated window- bulging originating from the pressure-based liquid pump, and also along with the liquid heating control system, the Stream solution seemed to help us to design various in situ liquid cell systems which were unachievable with other in situ holders.

In your experience so far, how have you found the Stream system?

At first, the Stream system was quite complicated to us since a lot of elaborate systems were installed. But soon we realized that it was much simpler than it seemed. The method to assemble the Stream holder was easy compared to other liquid cell TEM holders, and the way to control the injection solution was straightforward. And since a lot of O rings are used to encapsulate the Nano-cell, the holder seems to be very stable without leakage problems while operating the TEM. Also, the heating control software was upgraded from the Wildfire version, making it much easier to use the program.

DENSsolutions Prof. Jungwon Park

Jungwon Park, Ph.D
Associate Professor | Seoul National University

Jungwon Park received his B.S. degree from the Department of Chemistry, POSTECH, South Korea, in 2003, and his Ph.D. degree from the Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, in 2012. After a post-doc with the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, he started a faculty position with the School of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Seoul National University, in 2016, and he currently serves as an associate professor jointly affiliated with the Center for Nanoparticle Research, Institute for Basic Science (IBS). His research areas include the in-situ study of nanomaterials, liquid-phase TEM, phase transitions, interface chemistry, and low-dimensional materials.

Learn more about Stream:

Stream product page

Discover Jungwon Park’s publications:

Jungwon's publications

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Meet our new Marketing Communications Specialist, Lama Elboreini

Meet our new Marketing Communications Specialist, Lama Elboreini

by | Dec 10, 2020 | Interview, Meet the team

Robert Endert DENSsolutions

The global circumstances in today’s society have entirely shifted the business landscape, with no industry having the luxury of being exempt. Like most companies, we have had to find innovative ways of adapting to the changes fluctuating around us. Specifically, we needed to find somebody who could expand our marketing capabilities and initiate a new era of online product demonstrations, as well as act as our brand’s voice in a time where communication is evolving online.

We are lucky to have found just the right person for the job, Lama Elboreini, our new Marketing Communications Specialist. Lama has a multifaceted understanding of consumer behavior, advertising and brand development as a result of her Master’s degree in Marketing Management from the Rotterdam School of Management. Her role at DENSsolutions is focused on further positioning the company as the hub for the worldwide in situ EM community, working together with scientists to achieve meaningful research outcomes for global challenges.

We asked Lama to introduce herself so you can learn more about her background and her role at the company.

“My name is Lama Elboreini and I am a 21-year-old Egyptian national who has never lived a day in Egypt. I was born in Kuwait City, raised in Abu Dhabi and have spent the past 4 years and a half of my life right here in the Netherlands.

I moved to the Netherlands when I was 17 years old to pursue a BSc in International Business Administration at the Rotterdam School of Management (RSM), Erasmus University. During this three-year study, I explored the multitude of facets characterizing the business environment, from finance and accounting to supply chain management to my personal favorite, marketing. Although I found many of my bachelor’s courses interesting, nothing quite did it for me like marketing. Realizing this, in the third and final year of my study, I did a digital marketing and communications internship at Accenture the Netherlands. From this internship, I acquired hands-on experience and knowledge about content marketing, search engine optimization and thought leadership. It was during this time where I developed a deep passion for marketing and ultimately chose to pursue a master’s degree in the field.

In my efforts to challenge myself and develop my marketing, copywriting and interpersonal skills further, I decided to do a second marketing communications internship with Accenture alongside my MSc in Marketing Management at RSM. Through working with a large, co-dependent and highly diverse team, it was particularly in this internship that I learned the necessity and value of teamwork.

My next objective as a fresh master’s graduate a few months ago was to land a position at a company that could offer me a stimulating work environment within the realm of marketing. I came across an opening for a position that was exactly what I was looking for: Marketing Communications Specialist at DENSsolutions. The position entailed handling online product demonstrations, hosting insightful webinars and creating compelling content on the website and social media channels – all of which really excited me. Being so far from this vast world of nanoscience, I had never heard of the company before, let alone any company within the field. However, after extensively researching DENSsolutions and the field of in situ electron microscopy, I was blown away by the capabilities of their solutions and the key role that nanotechnology plays in solving global issues. 

After a full month of immersing myself within this intriguing world of nanoscience, and connecting with top researchers around the globe, I’m confident that I have made the right choice. I’m excited to use my digital marketing expertise to advance DENSsolutions’s capabilities and strengthen customer relationships. I’m also really happy to have the opportunity of initiating my career at a company of cutting-edge standards like DENSsolutions, within such a welcoming and knowledgeable team!”

Thank you for reading. If you would like to know more about Lama, don’t hesitate to contact her via email or LinkedIn.

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Improving the mechanical properties of 3D printed metal parts

Improving the mechanical properties of 3D printed metal parts

by | Oct 29, 2020 | Additive manufacturing, Materials science, Wildfire

In situ TEM helps to understand the microstructural changes in AlSi10Mg during 3D printing and post processing

 
Original article by Mihaela Albu, Robert Krisper, Judith Lammer, Gerald Kothleitner, Jacopo Fiocchi and
Paola Bassani
Dental crown created by selective laser melting (SLM)

Dental crown created by selective laser melting (SLM)

Selective laser melting (SLM) is an additive manufacturing technique used to create unique products for the medical technique, automotive-, aeronautic- and space industry. AlSi10Mg alloy is widely used for this technique because of its low weight, corrosion resistance, good thermal properties, specific strength, and flexible post processing capabilities. The mechanical properties of 3D printed parts show better values compared to parts that are made using traditional casting of metal. But these values decrease after conventional heat treatment. In this research, scientists from Graz Centre for Electron Microscopy, Austria, tried to understand the fundamental mechanisms responsible for the drop in mechanical properties after heat treatment.
This work provides the first correlative in-situ heating multiscale analysis of the powder and the additive produced AlSi10Mg alloy, allowing a unique insight into material transitions at the micro-and nanoscale. The researchers showed that microstructural changes like crystallization of eventually present amorphous phases and the evolution of Si nanoparticles evenly dispersed in the Al-matrix are the most important factors that contribute to the enhancement or decrease of the mechanical properties.

Towards affordable 3D metal printing

Nowadays, selective laser melting (SLM) refers to the most common system used to create metal parts from powders as feedstock. Despite its popularity, powder based additive manufacturing is still an expensive process, and consequently, getting proof components at the first attempt is of great economic interest. Manufacturers of such parts strive for optimizing their processes, not only to improve material properties, but also to enhance the interchangeability of building platforms and thus, their economic flexibility. Controlling these production aspects and finding an adequate post-processing strategy helps to fine-tune the microstructural features, and therefore the mechanical properties, according to different application fields.

Low magnification HAADF STEM video 80°C to 360°C in 20°C steps for the as-built sample, maintaining the isothermal stages for 4 min each
Atomic resolution video of a Si nanoparticle in the Al-matrix during in-situ heating

Benefits of in situ STEM

In-situ heating experiments in scanning transmission electron microscopes (STEM) enable immediate information about the structural, morphological and chemical changes and are thus helpful for the selection of various post-processing strategies.

DENSsolutions Wildfire System TF FEI

The DENSsolutions Wildfire H +DT system enabled the fast heating and cooling that allowed us to perform nanoscale crystallographic and chemical analyses at certain temperatures that corresponded to the exothermic peaks in DSC measurements and to the in-situ XRD measurements.

Dr. Mihaela Albu
“In-situ heating experiments performed on 3D printed materials enable breakthrough advances in printing and post-process optimization. DENSsolutions Wildfire system proved to have superior thermal and spatial stability, ensuring high-resolution investigations at higher temperatures.”

Dr. Mihaela Albu
Senior Scientist | TEM at the Austrian Centre for Electron Microscopy and Nanoanalysis

Original article:

publication

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EUSMI Nanostars Project

EUSMI Nanostars Project

by | Sep 16, 2020 | Tomography, Wildfire

Nothing could better illustrate the excellence of EUSMI Joint Research Activity (JRA), than the Nanostars project, which has combined the expertise of three EUSMI partners from three distinctive areas: CIC biomaGUNE, EMAT and DENSsolutions.

Nanoparticles are a versatile functional material and have much potential in medical applications. The chemists at CIC biomaGUNE have successfully synthesized a novel type of nanoparticles, targeting at cancer diagnosis and therapy. For this, it is crucial to obtain a precise understanding of the particle morphology, especially at high temperature. The electron microscopy experts at EMAT in Belgium have come to help and taken up the challenge to visualize the nanoparticles.

This challenge is formidable but also pushing the frontier of the electron micrsoscope technique. A new component must be developed and implemented into the existing machine. To achieve this, EMAT has jointed force with engineers and experts from DENSsolutions. In the video, you will see how the trio has produced a masterpiece of solution and extended the scientific and technical know-how.

Learn more about the Nanostars project:

interview sara bals

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wildfire product page

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Meet our new Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) Robert Endert

Meet our new Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) Robert Endert

by | Aug 27, 2020 | Interview, Meet the team

Robert Endert DENSsolutions

In order to continue the growth of our company and further advance the field of in-situ TEM, it is important that we keep investing in our commercial activities. The current worldwide situation encourages us to find innovative online ways to build and strengthen relationships with our customers and distributors. For this we were looking for a Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) who could take our company to the next level.

With Robert Endert we have found the right man for the job. Next to being a great team player, he has a lot of experience in Electron Microscopy (EM), marketing and sales. Robert will focus on growing our business and further improving our relationships with customers and distributors. We asked him to introduce himself and provide some background information.

My name is Robert Endert (Dutch, 57 years old) and I am happy to inform you that I recently started working for DENSsolutions.
I graduated from Delft University of Technology in the research group Electron Optics. After this I joined Philips Electron Optics as an application specialist. Here I was involved in training and demonstration activities for customers from all over the world. Since developing user-interfaces was also part of my job I quickly realized that the user-friendliness of scientific equipment is a key factor for success.
In my next job I led the sales & service department for Philips Electron Optics in the Netherlands and Belgium; here I learned that customers are not just looking for topnotch specifications but also for adequate service and support.
In the years to follow I had a number of sales and general management functions in companies selling capital equipment and turnkey projects where sales cycles are long and funding processes are challenging.
Earlier this year I was contacted by the CEO of DENSsolutions, who I knew from my first job at Philips. He told me about the fast growing nano-science world and the important contribution of in-situ TEM to its progress. It didn’t take long before I got enthusiastic and agreed to join his team as CCO.
The world is facing many challenges that can only be solved by the contribution of scientists working on electron microscopic level. DENSsolutions is committed to support these activities with state-of-the-art in-situ MEMS technology.
I am a strong believer in teamwork and open and transparent communication to build long lasting relationships. Fortunately this has become a lot easier with modern communication means, opening up great possibilities to do online webinars and demonstrations.
That’s why I am really looking forward to being part of the DENSSolutions team and the exciting world of nano-science!

Thank you for reading, if you would like to know more about Robert, don’t hesitate to contact him:

Email Robert

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