MICROSCOPY Vol.44▶No.1 2009
â– Researches Today

Availability of Ionic Liquid for Electron Microscopy

Susumu Kuwabata, Tsukasa Torimoto and Hideko Nakazawa

Abstract: Ionic liquid is organic salt that keep liquid state even at room temperature. Its negligible pressure prevents any vaporization even in vacuum condition, implying that the liquid, which is put in a vacuum chamber, can be observed by an electron microscope. Its attempt using a scanning electron microscope allowed us to know that ionic liquid was not charged at all during its observation, indicating that ionic liquid behaves like electronically conducting liquid in electron microscopy. The possibility of introducing the conducting liquid to electron microscopy is yielding several techniques; easily putting electronically conductivity to insulating materials, observation of specimen with wetted condition, in situ observation of chemical reactions taking place in ionic liquid.

Key words: ionic liquid, room temperature molten salt, attachment of conductivity, in situ electron microscope observation, electron microscope observation of specimen with wetted condition