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

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

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:

Discover Jungwon Park’s publications:

Discover publications made possible by Stream:

Do you want to receive great articles like this in your mailbox? Subscribe to our newsletter.

Meet our new Regional Sales Manager, Dr. Eva Bladt

Meet our new Regional Sales Manager, Dr. Eva Bladt

DENSsolutions Eva Bladt
DENSsolutions Eva Bladt

Building strong and long-standing customer relationships has always been a paramount objective at DENSsolutions. In efforts to increase our impact in the Nordics, Benelux, the U.K. and Ireland, we needed somebody who could further strengthen our ties with customers and expand our user base in these regions. We have found just the right person to carry out these responsibilities, Dr. Eva Bladt, our new Regional Sales Manager. Eva has a comprehensive understanding of materials science and electron microscopy, as well as a strong interpersonal skillset that allows her to communicate her extensive knowledge with ease. Her role at DENSsolutions is focused on further establishing relationships with our customers in the Nordics, Benelux, the U.K. and Ireland, enabling scientists to tackle their complex research questions using our innovative in-situ solutions. We asked Eva to introduce herself so you can learn more about her education, background and role at DENSsolutions.

Eva’s academic journey

“My name is Eva Bladt and I am 30 years old. I was born and raised in Antwerp, Belgium and have lived there my whole life except for last year when I moved to Melbourne, Australia for 6 months. When deciding what I wanted to study after high school, I actually had three options, all of which were exceptionally different from one another: a Bachelor’s in Dance, a Bachelor’s in Medicine and a Bachelor’s in Physics. After months of deliberation, I decided to pursue a Bachelor’s in Biomedical Sciences. Six weeks later, I realized I had made the wrong choice. I discovered that medicine didn’t excite me the way physics did, so I changed my studies and pursued a Bachelor’s in Physics instead. I immediately felt that this degree was a better fit for me.

I graduated with a MSc in Physics in 2013 from the University of Antwerp. During my Physics education, I developed a passion for materials science and electron microscopy. This translated into a Bachelor and Master thesis under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Sara Bals, a true expert in the field of electron tomography. After graduating, I started as a PhD in Sara’s group at EMAT (Electron Microscopy for Materials Science), one of the leading electron microscopy centers in the world. I focused on the 3D structural characterization of functional nanoparticles, particularly metallic and semiconductor nanoparticles. To pursue this PhD fellowship, I received a personal FWO (Research Foundation – Flanders) grant.

After receiving my PhD degree in 2017, I continued as a post-doctoral researcher at EMAT, which was also funded by a personal FWO grant. I mainly carried out atomic structure characterization studies of perovskite nanostructures and 3D thermal stability investigations of metallic nanoparticles. During my post-doc research, I was very fortunate to have had the opportunity to perform a research stay at the Monash Centre for Electron Microscopy in Melbourne, Australia, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Joanne Etheridge. During this research period, I focused on the 2D and 3D characterization of twinned metallic nanoparticles. This was a truly unique experience both on an academic and personal level.”

A new career path

“Although I’ve been a part of the academic world for quite some time now, I decided it was time for me to embark on a new career path. Moving away from academia was definitely not an easy decision, as nanoscience is undoubtedly where my passion lies. However, I couldn’t deny that I was longing for some change in my life. I wasn’t quite sure exactly what role I was searching for, but I knew it had to allow me to stay close to the field.

“I knew right away that this position was meant for me, not only because it allows me to stay close to the field of nanoscience, but also to exercise my passion for communication.” – Dr. Eva Bladt

When searching for positions a couple months ago, I came across an opening for Regional Sales Manager at DENSsolutions, a company whose solutions I was highly familiar with already. During my thermal stability studies, I worked extensively with the DENSsolutions Wildfire solution, an in-situ TEM heating system that has always impressed me, particularly for its extreme stability even at high temperatures. I knew right away that this position was meant for me, not only because it allows me to stay close to the field of nanoscience, but also to exercise my passion for communication. Aside from conducting research, I have always enjoyed communicating and presenting my results and have done so at various international conferences.

I think that my background in materials science and electron microscopy is of high value to this role particularly because I am able to understand customers’ specific research needs. This will allow me to step into the mind of the customer and better address their needs, ultimately enabling them to perform more meaningful research studies. I am really excited to be getting in touch with scientists in different fields and hope to expand DENSsolutions’s customers base with satisfied customers who will achieve ground-breaking insights using our solutions.”

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

Discover Eva Bladt’s Wildfire publications

3D characterization of heat-induced morphological changes of Au nanostars by fast in situ electron tomography 

 

Thermal stability of gold/palladium octopods studied in situ in 3D

 

Quantitative 3D characterization of elemental diffusion dynamics in individual Ag-Au nanoparticles with different shapes 

 

Do you want to receive great articles like this in your mailbox? Subscribe to our newsletter.

Installing the first Stream system in Singapore at the Nanyang Technological University

Installing the first Stream system in Singapore at the Nanyang Technological University

Standing next to the recently installed Stream system: from left, Dr. Anastasia Shebanova, Dr. Martial Duchamp and Jeffrey George from the Nanyang Technological University

We are happy to announce that the first ever Stream system in Singapore has recently been installed! For this event we interviewed Dr. Martial Duchamp from the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. In this interview, we discussed NTU’s advanced microscopy facility and the various applications that LPEM users are interested in, as well as how our Stream system has greatly benefited their research.  

Can you tell me a bit about the microscopy facility at the Nanyang Technological University?

The Nanyang Technological University has a shared microscopy facility called FACTS (Facility for Analysis Characterization Testing & Simulation) that specializes in characterization in the field of electron microscopy and x-ray techniques. FACTS provides state-of-the-art electron microscopes and X-ray instruments as well as the expertise to operate them to all of NTU and beyond.

This shared facility was created around 20 years ago. Four years ago, we had an extension of the facility, and got two aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopes as well as a new building where these TEMs were installed. The first TEM is a JEOL JEM-ARM200F, and the second is the JEOL JEM-GrandARM that is both probe- and image-corrected. Moreover, we have some local technicians and engineers who take care of these microscopes and make sure the facility is running well.

What type of applications are Stream users at the facility interested in?

Users of the facility are interested in a wide range of applications. In regards to LPEM users, we are using the DENSsolutions Stream system to study the liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) aspect of biological systems. Specifically, we are interested in the process called coacervation, which involves starting with a mixed phase of polymer or proteins dispersed in a solvent, and by changing certain conditions like the pH, temperature or salt concentration you can go from this diluted phase to a solid phase via phase separation. We are particularly interested in phase separation in order to understand how we go from these diluted solutions of drugs or proteins to solid matter.

Aside from liquid TEM, I am also interested in using in situ and operando TEM to observe 2D materials and the evolution of these materials versus temperature, as well as solar cells and batteries.

Can you tell us who won the grant to acquire the Stream system?

Associate Professor Ali Miserez, the lead PI of the project titled “Phase Separation-Regulated Life, In and Outside of Cells”, was awarded the Ministry of Education (MOE) Tier 3 grant worth 8.5 million Singaporean dollars. This research programme aims to closely integrate the tools of cell biology and colloidal biochemistry with the framework developed in the materials science of polymer science, soft matter, and complex fluids. The goal is to unravel LLPS-mediated functional organization across multiple biological length scales. Part of this grant was used to acquire the Stream system.

This 5-year project started last summer, and we are just starting to employ new researchers. In fact, some students already started a couple months ago and we expect to have some more people joining.

What particular features of Stream attracted you to the system?

For our experiments, it was essential to find a way to control the flux of the liquid within the liquid cell in order to look at reactions or processes occurring on the location of the electron beam. This is something we were unable to do with previous generations of holders and chips. The DENSsolutions Stream system is the only system that allows you to completely control the liquid flux. This unique capability is what intrigued us most about the system.

Moreover, as a result of the Nano-cell’s special inlet-outlet design, we are also able to fully control the pressure and liquid thickness. Other features that we found very attractive include the control systems like the heating control unit and the pressure-based pump, which are considerably more elaborate compared to what we had in the past.

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

The assembly in regards to the closing of the cell is quite straightforward, and so far we have not had any leakage issues. Just by closing the cell, it becomes airtight, which is a great advantage of the system. Moreover, what I really appreciate about the system is the ability to have complete control over the flow of the liquid.

Dr. Mihaela Albu

Dr. Martial Duchamp
Assistant Professor | Nanyang Technological University

Dr. Martial Duchamp is an Assistant Professor in the school of Materials Science and Engineering at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. His research interests include the development of innovative operando TEM methods for application to solar cells, batteries and fuel cells devices, as well as obtaining a fundamental understanding of 2D materials to reveal their unprecedented electrical properties at local scale.

Learn more about Stream:

Discover Martial Duchamp’s publications:

 

Discover publications made possible by Stream:

Do you want to receive great articles like this in your mailbox? Subscribe to our newsletter.

Meet our new Marketing Communications Specialist, Lama Elboreini

Meet our new Marketing Communications Specialist, Lama Elboreini

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 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.

Do you want to receive great articles like this in your mailbox? Subscribe to our newsletter.

Introducing the new DENSsolutions In Situ TKD Stage

Introducing the new DENSsolutions In Situ TKD Stage

An interview with Product Manager Dr. Gin Pivak about our latest In Situ TKD Stage

DENSsolutions introduces its latest solution for electron microscopy: the In Situ TKD Stage. This stage allows you to perform high resolution microstructural characterization inside your SEM using Transmission Kikuchi Diffraction (TKD) while heating or biasing your sample. We interviewed our Product Manager Dr. Gin Pivak to learn all about the stage, from the reason behind its development to its innovative capabilities. 

Why was this In Situ TKD Stage designed?

The electron backscatter diffraction method (EBSD) has been widely used to study crystal orientation, phase identification and grain size distribution in steels and other types of materials. However, the resolution of the EBSD technique is limited at best to 20 nm, allowing you to characterize polycrystalline materials down to about 100 nm in grain size. To attain a higher resolution, users must resort to transmission electron microscopes (TEM), 4D STEM and/or converging beam electron diffraction (CBED) methods, which are much less accessible.

The TKD method, on the other hand, enables orientation maps of electron transparent samples and allows you to quantitatively map changes in crystal orientation or structure in nanocrystalline materials. Moreover, the TKD experiment can be performed in a SEM, making the technique considerably more accessible with a shorter set-up time and lower cost of entry compared to that of TEM.

DENSsolutions realizes the challenges users are facing in regards to technical limitations, accessibility, time and costs. The In Situ TKD stage was therefore developed, enabling in situ studies of grain distribution and orientation maps of fine-grained and heavily deformed materials. It allows you to have a high spatial resolution similar to that of a TEM but without its impediments. The in situ TKD stage can be used in various applications fields such as automotive, aerospace, electronics, and power generation where in situ heating and/or biasing can help to understand and improve the properties of materials and devices.

What are the main benefits of the In Situ TKD Stage?

One of the most important benefits that the TKD Stage offers is saving you valuable time on the TEM, as you can perform quick preliminary in situ sample characterization inside the SEM instead. Moreover, with the TKD Stage you can conduct in situ heating and/or biasing experiments inside the SEM, making it considerably more accessible for users who are unable to access a TEM. Furthermore, as a result of its unique geometry, the In Situ TKD Stage allows you to perform microstructural characterization using the TKD method with high spatial resolution and simplified grain orientation mapping. 

The stage also allows you to easily interchange your chips as it is fully compatible with all double-tilt Wildfire and Lightning chips. Because of this, you are able to reach the exact same temperatures, voltages and currents inside the SEM as you can inside the TEM while easily swapping chips between microscopes.

Another important feature of the In Situ TKD Stage is the uniform workflow it offers. Because both the TKD Stage and our In Situ TEM solutions operate with the same stimuli supply components and control software, existing customers can easily integrate the TKD stage into their workflow.

What is the compatibility of the In Situ TKD Stage?

The TKD stage is compatible with different brands of SEM/FIBs, namely JEOL, Thermo Fisher Scientific (FEI) and Zeiss. It is also compatible with EBSD detectors from different companies, namely Bruker and Oxford Instruments. We are also looking into the possibility of expanding the compatibility of the stage to more brands. If you are using a different SEM or EBSD detector than the ones listed above, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Who are the people that will benefit from it?

There are a few types of users who will benefit from the TKD stage. This includes users who are interested in analyzing the grains structure and crystal orientation of samples under in situ heating and/or biasing stimuli. For others, the interest lies in the ability to conduct in situ heating and biasing experiments without so much focus on the orientation maps. For these users, the TKD Stage can be used as a simple in situ SEM stage that is more time and cost effective compared to that of a TEM for performing dynamic experiments.

What kind of challenges were tackled during development?

One of the greatest challenges we faced when developing the In Situ TKD Stage was ensuring the widest compatibility without sacrificing its performance. Moreover, we spent a long time on ensuring the flexibility and user-friendliness of the stage. We wanted the TKD Stage installation to be straightforward and effortless, but also flexible to change the orientation of the chips/samples. We also focused on ensuring that the working would be swiftly reached, and that the Nano-Chip positioning inside the TKD stage would be easy.

Another challenge was making the stage compatible with our Wildfire and Lightning Nano-Chips. We wanted to make sure that this was possible so that our Wildfire and Lightning customers could simply purchase the TKD stage and reuse their existing chips and heating/biasing control hardware and software.

Despite these challenges, we managed to fulfil all critical requirements and more. The stage is exceptionally easy to operate, installation takes no more than 10 minutes (even including replacing a flange for a vacuum electrical feedthrough) and the operating vacuum can be reached immediately after the installation within 10 minutes.

Did we cooperate with customers on this development?

Our policy at DENSsolutions has always and will always be to involve users when developing new products. We believe that it is simply impossible to create exceptional products without customers’ involvement.

Following our approach, we involved Vijay Bhatia from University of Sydney during the development of the In Situ TKD Stage. He informed us of necessary requirements for the stage from an experimental point of view, allowing us to design as optimally as possible.  

Which future developments lie ahead?

We will continue to work on the user-friendliness of the TKD stage and its compatibility. Particularly, we will focus on the implementation of an automatic electrical connection of the TKD stage with the control hardware outside the SEM/FIB. Additionally, we will make it possible to integrate our control software into the EBSD/TKD software. This will allow you to sync the crystallographic and in situ stimuli data, simplify the analysis and even control the in situ TKD stage directly from the SEM/FIB software.

Read more about the TKD Stage

Download the flyer:

pdf

Receive a quotation:

Do you want to receive great articles like this in your mailbox? Subscribe to our newsletter.

Meet our new Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) Robert Endert

Meet our new Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) Robert Endert

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

Do you want to receive great articles like this in your mailbox? Subscribe to our newsletter.