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What Can Electron Microscopy Tell Us Beyond Crystal Structures?
Author(s) -
Zhou Wuzong,
Greer Heather F.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
european journal of inorganic chemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.667
H-Index - 136
eISSN - 1099-0682
pISSN - 1434-1948
DOI - 10.1002/ejic.201501342
Subject(s) - transmission electron microscopy , crystallinity , crystal (programming language) , scanning electron microscope , chemistry , morphology (biology) , scanning transmission electron microscopy , crystallography , electron microscope , nanotechnology , microscopy , crystal structure , energy filtered transmission electron microscopy , scanning confocal electron microscopy , electron , optics , materials science , physics , computer science , biology , genetics , programming language , quantum mechanics
Transmission electron microscopy is a powerful tool to directly image crystal structures. Not only that, it is often used to reveal crystal size and morphology, crystal orientation, crystal defects, surface structures, superstructures, etc. However, due to the 2D nature of TEM images, it is easy to make mistakes when we try to recover a 3D structure from them. Scanning electron microscopy is able to provide information on the particle size, morphology and surface topography. However, obtaining information on crystallinity of particles using SEM is difficult. In this microreview article, some practical cases of transmission and scanning electron microscopy investigations of inorganic crystals are reviewed. Commonly occurring uncertainties, imperfection and misunderstandings are discussed.