An experimental approach to mapping chemical bonds in nanostructured materials

TL;DR

This paper presents innovative electron diffraction techniques enabling the direct measurement of interatomic electrostatic potentials at sub-nanometre scales, allowing for the mapping of chemical bonds in nanostructured materials, a feat previously unachievable.

Contribution

It introduces new experimental methods for quantitative convergent-beam electron diffraction to measure electron densities and chemical bonds in complex nanostructures.

Findings

First direct measurement of interatomic electrostatic potentials in nanostructures

Ability to map chemical bonds in heterogeneous nanomaterials

Advancement over previous methods limited to single-phase crystals

Abstract

We introduce a number of techniques in quantitative convergent-beam electron diffraction under development by our group and discuss the basis for measuring interatomic electrostatic potentials (and therefore also electron densities), localised at sub-nanometre scales, with sufficient accuracy and precision to map chemical bonds in and around nanostructures in nanostructured materials. This has never been possible as experimental measurements of bonding have always been restricted to homogeneous single-phased crystals.