While the phones in our pockets may be perfect for taking photos of our pets, taking good images of catalysts and other materials is far more complex, especially when you bring in scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM). The STEM imaging method is a way to observe catalysts while they’re working, or under catalytic conditions. The challenge is that background scattering from reaction gases, chemical reactions that produce gases, involved lowers the image quality, obscuring vital details about the structure and chemical composition. Dr. Yuanyuan Zhu and Dr. Nigel D. Browning, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, demonstrated how to effectively image catalysts within the STEM method.