In Situ Imaging and Spectroscopy of Particles in Liquid

This work presents an example of in situ imaging of particles, suspended in liquid, in a vacuum compatible microfluidic sample holder using a suite of tools including scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS), highlighting the advantage of multiscale analysis in material sciences. Nanometer-sized boehmite (AlOOH) particles synthesized at our laboratory are used as a model system in this work [1]. Such particles exist in high-level radioactive wastes at the Hanford site. It is known that they are difficult to dissolve and cause rheological problems for processing in the nuclear waste treatment plant. Therefore, it is important to build the capability to characterize boehmite particles suspended in liquid.