Berkeley scientists develop graphene liquid cells for electron microscopy

Scientists with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley have developed a technique for encapsulating liquids of nanocrystals between layers of graphene. This technqiue will allow the chemical reactions in the liquids to be imaged with an electron microscope. Thus, movies can be made that provide direct observations of physical, chemical and biological phenomena in liquids that happen on the nanometer scale. Collaborators plan to utilize graphene liquid cells to study the growth of many different types of nanoparticles, including metals, semiconductors and other useful materials. The graphene cells could also be applied to biomaterials, such as DNA and proteins, which exist naturally in solution.