Low cost transportable device for transference of atmosphere sensitive materials from glove box to SEM

Moisture or air sensitive materials are often encountered within several highly important fields such as catalyst R&D, pharmaceutical R&D, and battery R&D. Essential to all materials research and development is microstructure characterization, which often implies electron microscopy. Entering the field of high energy battery research involving highly reactive metals, e.g. lithium, we needed a means of transferring atmosphere sensitive materials from the protective atmosphere of a glove box, avoiding air exposure, to a sample chamber of a scanning electron microscope.

Thus, we constructed a low cost transportable device. The transportable transfer device holding a small evacuable chamber was constructed from a valve fitted with adapters to a glove box and a scanning electron microscope (JEOL 840). Examples of the application to high energy battery research are illustrated.