Scientific Achievement
- Researchers in the Data Driven Synthesis Science program captured and identified amorphization-mediated crystallization pathways of complex oxides using multimodal in situ TEM and X-ray characterization
Significance and Impact
- Understanding of the nucleation and nanoscale transformation pathways of energy materials, such as, DRX-LMTO, is significant for improving solid state synthesis but hard to approach
- The revealing of crystallization dynamics of xerogel, especially previously inaccessible range below 400°C, provided key insights on optimizing synthesis through amorphization, thus reducing bulk synthesis temperature
Research Details
- A liquid cell heating TEM platform coupled with customized automated dark-field image processing is used for phase tracking
- In situ XRD and Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) are utilized to support the nanoscale observations during synthesis
Publication Details
D. Cheng, T. Kodalle, A. T. Promi, A. Halder, R. F. Moral, M. Grass, V. S. Avvaru, H. Kim, C. M. Sutter-Fella, H. Zheng, Advanced Functional Materials (2026).
Work was performed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and in part by the Advanced Light Source and the Molecular Foundry.
