Nanostructuring inorganic solids has been effective as a tool to control the identity of the thermodynamically stable phase under ambient conditions for many systems. In addition, size effects can alter not only the temperature but also the other characteristics of a transformation—such as order, mechanism, and kinetics—which may further be responsible for the transient existence of intermediates, both thermodynamic and metastable, not accessed in the bulk. Since understanding the mechanism of a phase transformation requires local, even atomistic, information, and a similar understanding of the kinetics requires this information to be collected in real-time, in situ microscopy has proved invaluable in identifying key features of transformations on the nanoscale and promises to play a key role in the future design and implementation of such systems. Here, we discuss the use of in situ heating and biasing in the transmission electron microscope to investigate phase transformations in inorganic, single-phase, solid-state, nanostructured systems.

中文翻译：

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揭示相变的微观起源：原位TEM观点†

纳米结构化的无机固体已有效地成为控制许多系统在环境条件下热力学稳定相身份的工具。此外，尺寸效应不仅会改变温度，而且会改变转化的其他特征（例如顺序，机理和动力学），这可能进一步导致中间体的瞬时存在，无论是热力学还是亚稳态的，都无法通过分析获得。块。由于了解相变的机理需要局部甚至原子的信息，而对动力学的类似理解则要求实时地就地收集这些信息。显微镜已被证明在鉴定纳米级转化的关键特征方面无价，并有望在此类系统的未来设计和实施中发挥关键作用。在这里，我们讨论了在透射电子显微镜中使用原位加热和偏压来研究无机，单相，固态，纳米结构系统中的相变。