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Abstract

The development of microfabricated liquid cells has enabled dynamic studies of nanostructures within a liquid environment with electron
microscopy.While such setups are most commonly found in transmission electron microscope (TEM) holders, their implementation in a scanning
electron microscope (SEM) offers intriguing potential for multi-modal studies where the large chamber volume allows for the integration
of multiple detectors. Here, we describe an electrochemical liquid cell SEM platform that employs the same cells enclosed by silicon nitride
membrane windows found in liquid cell TEM holders and demonstrate the imaging of copper oxide nanoparticles in solution using both backscattered
and transmitted electrons. In particular, the transmitted electron images collected at high scattering angles show contrast inversion at
liquid layer thicknesses of several hundred nanometers, which can be used to determine the presence of liquid in the cell, while maintaining
enough resolution to image nanoparticles that are tens of nanometers in size. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we show that both imaging