Unveiling processes at the atomic scale in liquids
Faglige nøgleord: electron microscopy, microfabrication, electrochemistry
Oplæg tilgængeligt på: Engelsk og italiensk
I am an Industrial PhD student at DTU, employed by a DTU spin-out startup called Insight Chips. Both in my Bachelor and in my Master, I studied Materials Engineering at the Polytechnic of Turin. During my Master, I became passionate about "microfabrication", which is a type of fabrication employed to manufacture microchips. Therefore, I did an internship in STMicroelectronics, one of the most important microfabrication companies in Europe. Afterwards, I decided to start a PhD related to microfabrication.
My research topic is "Liquid Cell Transmission Electron Microscopy", also called LCTEM. LCTEM is a technique used to observe liquid samples (or samples in liquid) with high resolution using a transmission electron microscope (TEM). Differently from optical microscopy, in electron microscopy an electron beam is used to observe the sample instead of visible light. The advantage is that the TEM enables to observe atoms. However, in standard TEM it is not possible to observe liquid samples. In order to observe liquid samples, specific microfabricated chips are needed to enclose the liquid. Observing liquid samples at high resolution is important because it allows to observe processes while they occur, which give more insights into the process. Standard commercial systems don't allow atomic scale resolution imaging in liquid. Around 10 years ago, in DTU a new chip was developed which enabled atomic scale resolution of liquid samples. This breakthrough led to the creation of Insight Chips, which is currently commercializing the system.
My project is about further developing the Insight Chips' chip, implementing electrodes to study electrochemical processes. Atomic scale resolution of electrochemical processes would be very important for applications such as electrocatalysis and batteries. My plan is to talk about my career path and the importance creating your own career path based on your interests. I want to stress the fact that in universities there are a lot of opportunities to find your own path, and it is important to take advantage of them. Then, I will introduce my research topic, interacting with the students to make them think about the differences between optical microscopy and electron microscopy, and the challenges of observing liquid samples.