Are you automating your in-situ experiments? You probably should… [Video Abstract]

Sometimes taking a single experimental measurement just isn’t enough. Sometimes taking an experimental measurement at room temperature doesn’t cut it. To understand the mechanisms that govern how our materials behave we often need more than our conventional equipment can provide. For this, we turn to in-situ thermomechanical testing combined with scanning electron microscopy based analytical techniques. However, doing this manually is extremely labour intensive, so shouldn't we just automate everything?

Want to use our in-situ SEM testing facility at the University of Manchester? - https://www.royce.ac.uk/equipment-and...

Further scientific details and example experiments from our automated in-situ testing facility can be found here:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ultramic.20...

Original research paper for the in-situ observation of magnesium precipitation can be found here:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.202...

Research credits: A. E. Davis, A. D. Smith, J. M. Donoghue, J. Guo, J. D. Robson.

Video credits: Written by Alec E. Davis. Recorded, produced, and performed by Alec E. Davis. Guest starring J. M. Donoghue and A. D. Smith.

Alec E. Davis thanks J. M. Donoghue and A. D. Smith for feedback and for all the help with in-situ testing over the years.

This work was supported by grants: LightFORM (EPSRC EP/R001715/1), and Henry Royce Institute for Advanced Materials (EPSRC EP/R00661X/1, EP/S019367/1, EP/P025021/1, and EP/P025498/1). Luxfer MEL technologies are thanked for the provision of the alloy used in this study, D. Strong is thanked for conducting the rolling, and M. Kumar for the contrast correction code.

Alec E. Davis links:
[email protected]
  / alec_e_davis  
https://bsky.app/profile/alecdavis198...
https://www.threads.net/@alec_e_davis

https://www.materials.manchester.ac.uk/

Contents:
Intro 00:00
Manual in-situ testing 01:46
Automated in-situ testing/the TANIST lab 04:27
Magnesium precipitation 06:03
Observing precipitation in real time:
The setup 07:58
The results 09:24
What we learnt 10:54