Meirer, Florian; Cabana, Jordi; Liu, Yijin; Mehta, Apurva; Andrews, Joy C.; Pianetta, Piero

Journal of Synchrotron Radiation (2011), 18(5), 773-781 CODEN: JSYRES; ISSN: 0909-0495 URL: http://journals.iucr.org/s/issues/2011/05/00/ie5055/ie5055.pdf. English.

The ability to probe morphol. and phase distribution in complex systems at multiple length scales unravels the interplay of nano- and micrometer-scale factors at the origin of macroscopic behavior. While different electron- and X-ray-based imaging techniques can be combined with spectroscopy at high resolns., owing to exptl. time limitations the resulting fields of view are too small to be representative of a composite sample. Here a new X-ray imaging set-up is proposed, combining full-field transmission X-ray microscopy (TXM) with X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy to follow two-dimensional and three-dimensional morphol. and chem. changes in large vols. at high resolution (tens of nanometers). TXM XANES imaging offers chem. speciation at the nanoscale in thick samples (>20 .mu.m) with minimal preparation requirements. Further, its high throughput allows the anal. of large areas (up to millimeters) in minutes to a few hours. Proof of concept is provided using battery electrodes, although its versatility will lead to impact in a number of diverse research fields.