Toward the Era of Visualizing Chemical Reactions : Cinematic Chemistry Enabled by High-Speed Atomic-Resolution Electron Microscopy

This study presents a real-time atomic-resolution observation of chemical reaction dynamics at the single-molecule level using single-molecule atomic-resolution time-resolved electron microscopy (SMART-EM). [60]Fullerene (C60) molecules were encapsulated in carbon nanotubes and monitored at 1600 frames per second using a direct electron detection (DED) camera. To overcome the inherently low signal-to-noise ratio in such ultrafast imaging, we applied Chambolle total variation denoising, enabling clear visualization of single-frame structures. This allowed us to resolve a cascade reaction featuring multiple transient intermediates, including a highly strained, short-lived species (＜3 ms). Structural identification was achieved via cross-correlation image matching analysis with simulated TEM images based on Osawa-Tomanek models. Even fleeting high-energy states were experimentally captured, validating theoretical predictions and revealing the stochastic nature of molecular trajectories. This work establishes a new paradigm for visualizing molecular dynamics, highlighting the emerging field of “cinematic chemistry.”