WHAT: The CLS-SM cryo STXM was funded in Nov 2011, designed and built at CLS (2012-2015), installed June 2015, and is still being commissioned. The first analysable cryo-spectro-tomography data set was recorded on an AFCC membrane electrode assembly on 8 May 2017. The sample was at -180 C, 10 tilt angles spanning 80 deg. (-60 to +20) and images at 2 energies (on/off F 1s peak) were measured. Despite an inadequate set of tilt angles, a reconstruction to give 3D representation of the carbon support (blue) and PFSA ionomer (green) was achieved. Two views of the reconstruction are shown, and an mp4 movie of the rendering is linked.

The cryo-STXM microscope is one of 3 components of a major upgrade to the CLS soft X-ray spectromicroscopy facility, that is funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation, CLS, Provinces of Saskatchewan, Alberta and Ontario, and the AFCC Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation Corporation.

OTHER INFORMATION:

A. F. G. Leontowich, C. Regier, D. M. Taylor, R. Berg, K. Epp, J. Swirsky, C. Karunakaran, A. P. Hitchcock and S. G. Urquhart, Design and installation of a cryo scanning transmission x-ray microscope at the Canadian Light Source, International Conference on X-ray Microscopy (XRM2014), Melbourne, Australia, Oct, 2014