Electrical Potentials Introduced by Electron-Beam during in situ Cyclic Voltammagrams in a Commercial Electrochemical Liquid Cell Transmission Electron Microscope Holder

We use a model system of platinum electrodes and sulfuric acid to investigate how intermediate-to-low intensity electron beam currents affect cyclic voltammograms (CVs) in a commercial electrochemical liquid cell transmission electron microscope (LCTEM) holder. Using smaller beam currents, we see a potential shift (~ 100mV) in the entire CV when turning the beam on and off during potential cycling, but while increased electron beam currents cause increased currents in the oxidative and reductive portions of the CV, the static potential shift remains constant. Following Jiang [Micron 83, 79–92 (2016)], we understand this static potential shift to arise from remnant positive charge on both the top and bottom silicon nitride membrane, which we estimate as ~10-100 aC at the top and bottom membrane. Finally, we see that ‘beam-off’ CVs can be recovered following irradiation, but there is a finite time associated with this recovery which may impact the maximum speed of LCTEM experiments.