Gianluigi A. Botton

McMaster University, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) is an invaluable technique to study the detailed structure and the chemical state of materials at unprecedented spatial resolution in the Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM). Today, this technique is used to characterize nanoscale materials used in a myriad of applications from energy storage and conversion, to solid-state devices. This technique also has the potential to provide insight into much more fundamental problems where the valence state of atoms and their location is of fundamental importance.

In this presentation, I describe recent developments in EELS and TEM showing that is possible to probe the changes in bonding and coordination of atoms on surfaces of oxides, and detect small lattice distortions in nanowires with quantitative imaging. I will show that, with atomic resolution EELS, it is possible to determine ordering of cations in oxides, changes in bonding in high-T superconductors and understand the performance and degradation of catalyst materials.