DENSsolutions becomes a consecutive two-time winner of the Microscopy Today Innovation Awards. This year, our Climate system is recognized as one of the 10 most game-changing microscopy innovations of 2021.

Just last year, our Stream system was awarded the Microscopy Today Innovation Award for its unique contribution to the field of liquid phase electron microscopy. We are honored to be taking home the same award for a second year in a row but this time for the remarkable innovation that is our Climate system. Climate is recognized as one of the 10 most game-changing microscopy innovations in 2021 by Microscopy Society of America‘s esteemed magazine, Microscopy Today. We interviewed our Chief Technology Officer Dr. Hugo Pérez-Garza, who led the development of the Climate system, to learn all about the unique benefits that made it earn such an esteemed award, as well as the development process and Climate’s current and envisioned applications. The transcript of the interview is provided below.

What was your reaction when you first heard the news?

It was pretty exciting. As you can imagine, the entire team was very happy when we first heard the news. At the end of the day, I think that this is just another consequence of the amazing teamwork that prevails in this company. And of course, to be accredited by the MSA is a big honor, especially as this is a highly esteemed award within the community. So it really means a lot to us. We really feel confident that our technology, and particularly our Climate system, will help scientists explore all sorts of new research possibilities.

What unique aspects of the system do you think made it earn such an esteemed award?

Over the last months, we have been exerting a lot of effort into making sure that we can improve the Climate system from various different angles. So that means that we have been doing a lot of work to ensure that we can optimize the different components that make up this plug-and-play system. Specifically, we have been trying to boost our MEMS capabilities (the Nano-Reactor). Moreover, we have been trying to continuously improve our hardware components, including the Gas Supply System, the Vaporizer, the Mass Spectrometer, etc. And of course, making sure that we can have new solutions as well for the software platform. Now when you put all these together, what we ended up realizing was that this new optimized Climate system brings all sort of real unique aspects to one’s research.

1) Live gas mixing

Firstly, Climate offers the possibility of performing live gas mixing (i.e. making sure that you can achieve any desired gas composition instantaneously). It ensures that users won’t have to wait for their gas mixtures to be prepared. We see this big added value in our customers’ experiments, for example in redox reactions, where the intrinsic nature of the experiment demands the possibility to quickly go from an oxidizing environment to a reducing environment. Often times people have to do this back-and-forth and in a fast and repetitive way. 

2) Start a new experiment (from a dry to wet environment or vice versa) within minutes

Furthermore, for these experiments a lot of researchers would be interested in humidifying the gas composition. This is precisely where the Vaporizer comes in. Now what happens here is that when you are humidifying the gas, often people are afraid of the contamination that the water molecules would represent for the gas lines. And that is why systems have to baked or have to undergo lengthy pumping times. But that wouldn’t be the case with the Vaporizer, as we have designed it in such a way that the introduction of the water vapor to the gas mixture is the last thing before entering the holder. So that ensures that your Gas Supply System will remain clean, and that you don’t have to perform these baking procedures or keep it pumping over night. This ultimately means you can go from a dry environment to a wet environment, or vice versa, in just a few minutes. So it opens up a lot of possibilities because it gives users this flexibility. 

3) Safely work with explosive mixtures and independently control gas parameters

The fact that we’re dealing with extremely low volumes of gas also means that we can safely handle explosive mixtures even if you plan to do this under extreme conditions such as high temperatures (above 1000°C) in combination with high pressures (i.e. 2 bars) and high relative humidity (i.e. 100%). Not only can you safely handle these explosive mixtures, but you can also control the relative humidity independently from other parameters such as temperature, pressure, gas composition and flow rate. So having this independent control also brings a lot of flexibility to users. 

4) Perform real nano-calorimetry and calibrate for time delay

The Nano-Reactor is also something very unique as we have been heavily optimizing the design such that, for example, the microheater allows for real nano-calorimetry. And this is really unique because it means that you can start quantifying and measuring the tiniest changes in temperature dissipation to understand if you’re observing an exothermic or endothermic reaction. And this is also really beneficial because you can calibrate for time delay, which is an issue that systems usually suffer from due to the unavoidable delay from the Gas Supply System to the MEMS device and to the Mass Spectrometer. Now, we can calibrate for that. 

5)  Prevent bypasses and achieve a desirable SNR

Moreover, the unique design of the Nano-Reactor itself, for which we have a patent, ensures that we can have an on-chip inlet and outlet. In other words, we can ensure that the gas will flow from the inlet to the outlet via the region of interest in a uni-directional way. And that means we can prevent bypasses and therefore improve the signal-to-noise ratio and the sensitivity of the Gas Analyzer. So the combination of these offerings (for example that our MEMS device can go to these high pressures like 2 bar, or allow you to perform EDS experiments well above 900 degrees at high pressures) ends up bringing a very unique value proposition for the user. 

What unique aspects of the system do you think made it earn such an esteemed award?

Over the last months, we have been exerting a lot of effort into making sure that we can improve the Climate system from various different angles. So that means that we have been doing a lot of work to ensure that we can optimize the different components that make up this plug-and-play system. Specifically, we have been trying to boost our MEMS capabilities (the Nano-Reactor). Moreover, we have been trying to continuously improve our hardware components, including the Gas Supply System, the Vaporizer, the Mass Spectrometer, etc. And of course, making sure that we can have new solutions as well for the software platform. Now when you put all these together, what we ended up realizing was that this new optimized Climate system brings all sort of real unique aspects to one’s research.

1) Live gas mixing

Firstly, Climate offers the possibility of performing live gas mixing (i.e. making sure that you can achieve any desired gas composition instantaneously). It ensures that users won’t have to wait for their gas mixtures to be prepared. We see this big added value in our customers’ experiments, for example in redox reactions, where the intrinsic nature of the experiment demands the possibility to quickly go from an oxidizing environment to a reducing environment. Often times people have to do this back-and-forth and in a fast and repetitive way. 

2) Start a new experiment (from a dry to wet environment or vice versa) within minutes

Furthermore, for these experiments a lot of researchers would be interested in humidifying the gas composition. This is precisely where the Vaporizer comes in. Now what happens here is that when you are humidifying the gas, often people are afraid of the contamination that the water molecules would represent for the gas lines. And that is why systems have to baked or have to undergo lengthy pumping times. But that wouldn’t be the case with the Vaporizer, as we have designed it in such a way that the introduction of the water vapor to the gas mixture is the last thing before entering the holder. So that ensures that your Gas Supply System will remain clean, and that you don’t have to perform these baking procedures or keep it pumping over night. This ultimately means you can go from a dry environment to a wet environment, or vice versa, in just a few minutes. So it opens up a lot of possibilities because it gives users this flexibility. 

3) Safely work with explosive mixtures and independently control gas parameters

The fact that we’re dealing with extremely low volumes of gas also means that we can safely handle explosive mixtures even if you plan to do this under extreme conditions such as high temperatures (above 1000°C) in combination with high pressures (i.e. 2 bars) and high relative humidity (i.e. 100%). Not only can you safely handle these explosive mixtures, but you can also control the relative humidity independently from other parameters such as temperature, pressure, gas composition and flow rate. So having this independent control also brings a lot of flexibility to users. 

4) Perform real nano-calorimetry and calibrate for time delay

The Nano-Reactor is also something very unique as we have been heavily optimizing the design such that, for example, the microheater allows for real nano-calorimetry. And this is really unique because it means that you can start quantifying and measuring the tiniest changes in temperature dissipation to understand if you’re observing an exothermic or endothermic reaction. And this is also really beneficial because you can calibrate for time delay, which is an issue that systems usually suffer from due to the unavoidable delay from the Gas Supply System to the MEMS device and to the Mass Spectrometer. Now, we can calibrate for that. 

5)  Prevent bypasses and achieve a desirable SNR

Moreover, the unique design of the Nano-Reactor itself, for which we have a patent, ensures that we can have an on-chip inlet and outlet. In other words, we can ensure that the gas will flow from the inlet to the outlet via the region of interest in a uni-directional way. And that means we can prevent bypasses and therefore improve the signal-to-noise ratio and the sensitivity of the Gas Analyzer. So the combination of these offerings (for example that our MEMS device can go to these high pressures like 2 bar, or allow you to perform EDS experiments well above 900 degrees at high pressures) ends up bringing a very unique value proposition for the user. 

What inspired you and the entire team to develop Climate in the first place?

Certainly understanding the importance and the impact that environmental studies can have on our global society was a big source of inspiration for the entire team. Having said that, understanding the solid-gas interactions at the nanoscale is what sets the foundation such that scientists can really start understanding how to optimize and synthesize future catalytic nanoparticles, which will end up playing a crucial role in applications such as carbon capture, energy storage and conversion as well as food production. So it is really this profound information that we can get from in situ TEM that gives this understanding. Because when you can start correlating particle size with composition, crystal orientation, or with the atomic or the electronic structure, it really gives a deep level of understanding for all these kinds of experiments. 

Can you walk us through the development process of Climate?

It has been 5 or 6 years since we launched our first product line for in situ gas analysis. Ever since, what we have been doing is trying to make sure that we can stay as close as we can to our customers as well as prospects. Now the intention of doing that is when you start gathering the feedback and the vision that both groups have, you start understanding the pain points a little bit more. You start becoming more empathic to their experimental needs. And that helps us identify the product profile that we should have in place. And when you are aware of this product profile, then automatically you know what technologies must be developed, which is part of your roadmap. And subsequently when you have that in place, then you also know what people and processes must be involved. So, it’s a matter of doing that so that when we gather these market requirements, we can follow a defined product creation process that will allow us to develop a technology that will match these market requirements. 

What future applications do you envision for Climate?

Certainly everything related to green technologies. As I mentioned earlier, that is a big goal and motivation that we all have at this company. So these kinds of experiments and topics I was referring to like carbon capture, energy conversion and storage, and all sort of environmental protection kind of studies, that’s really where everything will head towards. 

Thank you for reading. To learn more about our Climate system please follow the links below.

Download the Climate brochure: 

See a customer publication:

Receive a quotation:

Receive a demo:

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