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Quantitative In‑Situ TEM Tensile
Testing Apparatus--Hysitron, Inc.,
Dr. Zhiwei
Shan, Principal Investigator, zshan@hysitron.com
Mr. Thomas J. Wyrobek,
Business Official, Thomas@hysitron.com
DOE Grant No. DE‑FG02‑07ER84813
Amount:
$750,000
In situ tensile testing in the transmission electron microscope (TEM) has
been a powerful tool for revealing underlying physical mechanisms at the nano or even atomic scale when materials are subjected to
an applied stress. However, all
commercially available in situ TEM tensile holders suffer from the
absence of quantitative ability and require complex sample preparation. This project will develop a tensile device
for operation inside a TEM, not only yielding quantitative load-displacement
data concomitant with real-time images of the microstructural
behavior, but also simplifying the sample preparation procedure. In Phase I, a working quantitative tensile
system was designed and built by integrating a newly-developed microelectromechanical systems-based push-to-pull device
into an existing in situ TEM holder system. The feasibility of the concept was
demonstrated by testing the system in the TEM.
Phase II will (1) develop ready-tocommercialize,
quantitative, in situ TEM tensile testing systems that will be
compatible with the TEMs of all major manufacturers;
(2) develop devices based on micro- or nano-
electromechanical systems, in order to enable the quantitative investigation of
the coupling effects between electro/mechanical and thermal/mechanical behavior
of nanomaterials; and (3) conduct relevant experiments
using the quantitative tensile system
Commercial Applications and
Other Benefits as described by the awardee:
The
quantitative in situ TEM tensile technique should substantially improve
our understanding of the relationship between and external applied stress and the
materials’ response at nano and even atomic scale,
and thereby provide solid experimental parameters for optimizing the properties
of components and products that result from nanoscience.