A MEMS Reactor for Observing Morphology-Evolution in Tem and Simultaneously Detecting Involved Molecule-Number Change During Nano-Constructing Reaction

This study develops a novel MEMS reactor for in situ structure-property correlative characterization during nano-construction process. With the nano-reactant putting inside, the micro-reactor is installed in a transmission-electron-microscope (TEM). Nano-constructing reaction occurs after the reacting-gas of variable concentration and pressure is introduced into the reactor to react with the nano-material that is heated to desired temperature. TEM observation to the nano-structure change is enabled by integrating a 40nm-thin SiN-film window in the reactor. A resonant-cantilever gravimetric sensor is also integrated inside the reactor to load the nano-substance and detect the reaction-induced mass change via $\Delta \mathrm{f}_{0}\propto\Delta \mathrm{m}$. Thus the reactor is enabled continually observing morphology-evolution and simultaneously recording the mass-change during the reaction process, thereby in situ building the correlation between nano-morphology and quantitative physicochemical properties. Experiment has verified that the TEM observation achieves atomic-scale resolution and the mass detection resolution gets 1 pico-gram to extract quantitative physicochemical properties. The reactor can be widely used for nano-material developments.