Recently, Prof. Ping Cheng’s team published one paper entitled “Nucleation Site Distribution Probed by Phase-Enhanced Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy” on Cell Reports Physical Science. This work was featured on recent MIT NEWS. Authors of this work include Dr. Lenan Zhang (MIT), Dr. Ryuichi Iwata (MIT), Associate Prof. Shuai Gong (SJTU), Associate Prof. Zhenyuan Xu (SJTU) et al. Prof. Ping Cheng and Prof. Evelyn Wang (MIT) are the corresponding authors of this joint work.  

Schematic showing the principle of p-ESEM  

In this work, the research team performed the first detailed imaging of droplet nucleation process during condensation using a new microscope technique called phase-enhanced environmental scanning electron microscopy (p-ESEM), which could greatly increase the overall sensitivity by as much as tenfold and improve contrast and resolution by reconstructing the phase-delay from electron scattering. The universal nucleation site distribution mechanism proposed in this work could broadly impact diverse applications including boiling, condensation, electrochemical processes, material growth, corrosion initiation, as well as solidification of ice or phase change materials in energy storage. The work was supported by the National Science Foundation of China and National Science and Technology Major Project.

Cell Reports Physical Science is a new high impact Journal from Cell Press, aiming to publish cutting-edge research across physics, energy science, materials science, engineering, and related interdisciplinary work.

Link of the paper: https://www.cell.com/cell-reports-physical-science/fulltext/S2666-3864(20)30284-8

Link of the MIT News: https://news.mit.edu/2020/droplet-nucleation-microscope-1202