Automated electron microscopy sample preparation system

Abstract

The emergence of self-driving laboratories (SDLs) promises to innovate chemistry and materials science by incorporating autonomous systems for experimental design and execution. Advanced material characterization techniques, such as electron microscopy, are crucial for determining the materials synthesized by SDLs, and integrating these techniques into the SDL workflow is of paramount importance. Despite recent advancements, automated preparation of samples for electron microscopy remains challenging due to the specialized and hard-to-replicate human processes involved in powder dispensing and sample transfer. In this work, we introduce an automated electron microscopy sample preparation robot (EMSBot) that is designed for the preparation of powder samples for electron microscopy in SDLs. To enable easy integration with existing SDL hardware and software, EMSBot is equipped with a user-friendly interface and a modular design. Beyond automating this traditionally manual process, EMSBot delivers more consistent and higher-quality powder dispersions compared to conventional manual preparation. As a result, EMSBot streamlines sample preparation and accelerates the integration of advanced multiscale characterization techniques such as scanning and transmission electron microscopy into existing SDL workflows.