Electron microscopy of soft materials

Here we show how a high-resolution transmission electron microscopy can be applied to characterize soft matters. Direct imaging of the hexagonal network of carbon nanostructures enables us to identify individual molecular structures and atomic structures; fullerene molecules (C80) have been successfully identified with this method on a single-molecular basis. Visualizing and identification of individual carbon atoms has been achieved by a newly developed low-accelerating voltage TEM/STEM with sophisticated aberration correctors, showing the different natures of radical carbon atoms at the graphene edge. © 2014 The Society of Polymer Science, Japan.