In-Situ Transmission Electron Microscopy Coupled with Resonant Microcantilever for Comprehensive Evaluating Sulfurization Performance of Zinc Oxide Nanowires

This paper reports a new technique with in-situ transmission electron microscopy (in-situ TEM) and resonant microcantilever to comprehensively evaluate sulfurization performance of ZnO nanowires. Herein, in-situ TEM is used to real-time observe the sulfurization process of ZnO nanowires under SO
₂
-contained atmosphere. Based on temperature-varying micro-gravimetric method, thermodynamic interaction between ZnO nanowires and SO
₂
molecules is quantitatively evaluated by resonant microcantilever. By exposing the ZnO nanowires sample to SO
₂
-contained atmosphere, a thick shell layer of ZnSO
₃
can be formed onto the surface of ZnO nanowires and a novel core-shell nanowire structure of ZnO@ZnSO
₃
is obtained finally. According to our comprehensive evaluation results, the ZnO nanowires sample with 100 nm diameter exhibits high reactive to SO
₂
molecules and is suitable for SO
₂
capture and storage.