High energy electron scattering of liquid water (H₂O) at near-ambient temperature and pressure was performed in a transmission electron microscope (TEM) to determine the radial distribution of water, which provides information on intra- and intermolecular spatial correlations. A recently developed environmental liquid cell enables formation of a stable water layer, the thickness of which is readily controlled by pressure and flow rate adjustments of a humid air stream passing between two silicon nitride (Si₃N₄) membranes. The analysis of the scattering data is adapted from the x-ray methodology to account for multiple scattering in the H₂O:Si₃N₄ sandwich layer. For the H₂O layer, we obtain oxygen–oxygen (O–O) and oxygen–hydrogen (O–H) peaks at 2.84 Å and 1.83 Å, respectively, in good agreement with values in the literature. This demonstrates the potential of our approach toward future studies of water-based physics and chemistry in TEMs or electron probes of structural dynamics.

中文翻译：

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使用电子散射确定水的径向分布函数：溶液相化学的关键

在透射电子显微镜（TEM）中在接近环境温度和压力下对液态水（H ₂ O）进行高能电子散射，以确定水的径向分布，从而提供了关于分子内和分子间空间相关性的信息。最近开发的环境液池能够形成稳定的水层，通过在两个氮化硅（Si ₃ N ₄）膜之间通过的湿空气流的压力和流量调节，可以容易地控制其厚度。散射数据的分析是从X射线方法中得出的，以说明H ₂ O：Si ₃ N ₄夹心层中的多次散射。对于H_在2 O层，我们获得的氧-氧（O-O）和氧-氢（O-H）峰分别在2.84Å和1.83Å处，与文献中的值非常吻合。这证明了我们的方法对未来在TEMs或结构动力学电子探针中的水基物理和化学研究的潜力。