Liquid-cell Transmission Electron Microscopy for Tracking Self-assembly of Nanoparticles

Drying a nanoparticle dispersion is a versatile way to create self-assembled structures of nanoparticles, but the mechanism of this process is not fully understood. We have traced the trajectories of individual nanoparticles using liquid-cell transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to investigate the mechanism of the assembly process. Herein, we present the protocols used for liquid-cell TEM studies of the self-assembly mechanism. First, we introduce the detailed synthetic protocols used to produce uniformly sized platinum and lead selenide nanoparticles. Next, we present the microfabrication processes used to produce liquid cells with silicon nitride or silicon windows and then describe the loading and imaging procedures of the liquid-cell TEM technique. Several notes are included to provide helpful tips for the entire process, including how to manage the fragile cell windows. The individual motions of nanoparticles tracked by liquid-cell TEM revealed that changes in the solvent boundaries caused by evaporation affected the self-assembly process of nanoparticles. The solvent boundaries drove nanoparticles to primarily form amorphous aggregates, followed by flattening of the aggregates to produce a 2-dimensional (2D) self-assembled structure. These behaviors are also observed for different nanoparticle types and different liquid-cell compositions.