Development of electron microscopy techniques using ionic liquid

Abstract

Ionic liquid possesses negligible vapor pressure that allows us to put the liquids in a vacuum chamber without any vaporization of the liquid. This fact led us to attempt to observe ionic liquid by a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Surprisingly it has been found that ionic liquid can be observed without any charging of the liquid. This result means that ionic liquid behaves as electrically conducting material in SEM observation. Based on this finding, it was initiated to develop new electron microscopy techniques; putting ionic liquid on the surfaces of insulating materials for their observation by SEM, SEM observation of bio-materials wetted by ionic liquid, and SEM observation of chemical reactions occurring in ionic liquid.