2025 Plenty of Beauty at the Bottom Image Contest

Submission Category: Most Stunning

Alloy Garden

Artists: Anugrahaprada Mukundan (PhD student) and Mitsuhiro Murayama (Professor), Materials Science and Engineering Department

Tool: ThermoScientific Helios 5 UC Dual Beam

This scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image shows AlFeCe alloy powder particles, which were later used to 3D print the alloy. The aim of analyzing these powders is to explore potential correlations between the phases observed in the powders and those in the 3D-printed specimen. Within a single particle, the various phases appear in different sizes and morphologies, resembling flowers and trees in a garden, at the microscale.

Submission Category: Most Unique Capability

Advancing Post-Mortem Analysis: Wide-Area Cooling Cross-Section Polishing of a 1 Ah Pouch Cell Anode

Artists: Rupayan Ghosh (PhD Candidate, Department of Chemistry) and Jarret Wright (FIB/SEM Laboratory Manager, NCFL)

Tool: JEOL IT-500HR and JEOL IB-19520CCP Cooling Cross Section Polisher

This BSE image shows the wide-area cross-section of a 1Ah pouch cell SiOx@C composite anode, casted on Cu foil after long-term cycling. The sample was polished using the JEOL IB-19520CCP Cooling Cross Section Polisher and imaged using the JEOL IT-500HR, revealing the intricate internal morphology of the composite anode following extensive charge–discharge cycles.

Our group focuses on the synthesis and investigation of electrode materials under diverse cycling conditions through systematic post-mortem and teardown studies. With NCFL’s advanced cooling cross-section polisher, we can achieve wide-area cross-sectioning, providing comprehensive statistical insights that accelerate the understanding and development of next-generation, durable energy storage systems.

Submission Category: Most Whimsical

Little Lamb in the Lattice

Artist: Md Sifat Hossain, PhD student, Department of Chemical Engineering

Tool: JEOL JEM-2100 TEM

In this whimsical entry, a TEM image of a used catalyst reveals an unexpected surprise — the soft silhouette of a lamb. What you see is carbon deposition on the zeolite surface after methane conversion, with tiny carbon nanotubes creating intricate textures. While this image captures important details about catalyst deactivation, its playful resemblance to a lamb highlights the beauty of science beyond data and numbers. It reminds us that nanoscale research often unveils patterns and forms that spark imagination, offering a unique bridge between rigorous materials science and artistic interpretation at the atomic scale.

Plateaus of PBI

Artist: Zak Bear, Luna Labs

Tool: JEOL IT-500HR

This micrograph depicts the surface structure of polybenzimidazole (PBI) after long-term exposure to high temperatures. Unlike most thermoplastics, PBI decomposes before it melts making a beautiful, terraced landscape.

Nanotube Networks on Spent Zeolite Catalysts

Artist: Md Sifat Hossain, PhD student, Department of Chemical Engineering

Tool: JEOL JEM-2100 TEM

This high-resolution TEM image of a used zeolite catalyst reveals a whimsical sight — a “mouse” holding a microphone. The darker regions represent zeolite-based catalyst particles, while the fine thread-like structures are carbon nanotubes formed during methane conversion reactions. Captured at the microscale, this image not only highlights the intricate morphology of carbon deposition but also the power of transmission electron microscopy to reveal beauty in unexpected places. Beyond its scientific significance in understanding catalyst deactivation, this snapshot brings art and science together, showing how the smallest structures can inspire imagination and creativity.

 Leg of a predatory mite (Amblyseius cucumeris) on fibers (inset)

Artist: Atharva Agashe, Mechanical Engineering

Tool: JEOL IT-500HR

These mites are used as a natural method to eliminate spider mites (Tetranychus urticae), a pest that damages a variety of crops. Spider mites use webbing to protect their eggs, migrate to non-infested plants, and to escape predators. However, understanding how these mites navigate the fibrous environment they are surrounded by is limited. Thus, using techniques such as SEM allows us to investigate the mechanisms by which these animals attach to the fibrous webbing and, in turn, will provide insight into how these mites migrate on fibers.

Forest at the bottom

Artists: Peidong Liu (PhD Student), Department of Mining Engineering; Xuebing Wang (PhD Student), Department of Economics

Tool: JEOL IT-500HR

Under the scanning electron microscope, these artificially synthesized calcite particles form a scene that looks strikingly like a dense forest. Each crystal appears as a tiny “tree,” with sharp edges rising upward and clustered together in natural-looking patterns. Though they are the product of careful laboratory synthesis, the arrangement mimics landscapes we recognize in nature, blurring the line between geology and art. What seems at first like a bird’s-eye view of woodland is in fact a glimpse into the microscopic world of minerals. It shows how scientific experiments can produce both useful materials and unexpected beauty.

Scales of the Demon

Artists: Anugrahaprada Mukundan (PhD student) and Mitsuhiro Murayama (Professor), Materials Science and Engineering Department

Tool: JEOL JEM 2100 TEM

Dislocations are line defects in crystals, typically appearing where the regular arrangement of atoms is slightly disturbed. In this transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image of a Tungsten Heavy Alloy (WHA), the dislocations form a network, and their pattern resembles the overlapping scales of a fish. These fish scales are completed by adding the body of Gyokko, the Fish Demon from the Demon Slayer anime series (shown in the top right), to the image.