Imaging rotational dynamics of nanoparticles in liquid by 4D electron microscopy

In real time and space, four-dimensional electron microscopy (4D EM) has enabled observation of transient structures and morphologies of inorganic and organic materials. We have extended 4D EM to include liquid cells without the time resolution being limited by the response of the detector. Our approach permits the imaging of the motion and morphological dynamics of a single, same particle on nanometer and ultrashort time scales. As a first application, we studied the rotational dynamics of gold nanoparticles in aqueous solution. A full transition from the conventional diffusive rotation to superdiffusive rotation and further to a ballistic rotation was observed with increasing asymmetry of the nanoparticle morphology. We explored the underlying physics both experimentally and theoretically according to the morphological asymmetry of the nanoparticles.