The Effect of Substrates / Ligands on Metal Nanocatalysts Investigated By Quantitative Z-Contrast Imaging and High Resolution Electron Microscopy

2005 ◽  
Vol 876 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huiping Xu ◽  
Laurent Menard ◽  
Anatoly Frenkel ◽  
Ralph Nuzzo ◽  
Duane Johnson ◽  
...  

AbstractOur direct density function-based simulations of Ru-, Pt- and mixed Ru-Pt clusters on carbon-based supports reveal that substrates can mediate the PtRu5 particles [1]. Oblate structure of PtRu5 on C has been found [2]. Nevertheless, the cluster-substrate interface interactions are still unknown. In this work, we present the applications of combinations of quantitative z-contrast imaging and high resolution electron microscopy in investigating the effect of different substrates and ligand shells on metal particles. Specifically, we developed a relatively new and powerful method to determine numbers of atoms in a nanoparticle as well as three-dimensional structures of particles including size and shape of particles on the substrates by very high angle (~96mrad) annular dark-field (HAADF) imaging [2-4] techniques. Recently, we successfully synthesize icosahedra Au13 clusters with mixed ligands and cuboctahedral Au13 cores with thiol ligands, which have been shown by TEM to be of sub-nanometer size (0.84nm) and highly monodisperse narrow distribution. X-ray absorption and UV-visible spectra indicate many differences between icosahedra and cuboctahedral Au13 cores. Particles with different ligands show different emissions and higher quantum efficiency has been found in Au11 (PPH3) SC12)2C12. We plan to deposit those ligands-protected gold clusters onto different substrates, such as, TiO2 and graphite, etc. Aforementioned analysis procedure will be performed for those particles on the substrates and results will be correlated with that of our simulations and activity properties. This approach will lead to an understanding of the cluster-substrates relationship for consideration in real applications.

2001 ◽  
Vol 7 (S2) ◽  
pp. 1102-1103
Author(s):  
Judith C. Yang ◽  
Erin Devlin ◽  
William Rhodes ◽  
Steven Bradley

A vital component to nanoparticle science will be the three dimensional (3-D) characterization of both structure and chemistry of these nanoparticles on their supports at the nanometer scale and below. to achieve this goal, quantitative Z-contrast and atomic resolution will provide essential information about their structure. Z-contrast imaging is ideal for imaging these large Z nanoparticles on low Z supports. in this proceedings, we present a quantitative Z-contrast method to determine number of atoms and a few examples of a combination of electron microscopy methods to gain structural insights into supported nanoparticle, such as Pt on different support materials, PtRu5 on C and Pt-Sn on SiO2.A relatively new and powerful method is to determine the number of atoms in a nanoparticle, by very high angle annular dark-field (HAADF) imaging or Z-contrast technique [1, 2]. We have shown that quantification of the absolute image intensity from very HAADF microscopy will provide the number of atoms in very small particles of high atomic number to ±2 atoms for Re6 nanoparticles supported on carbon [3].


2001 ◽  
Vol 7 (S2) ◽  
pp. 1100-1101
Author(s):  
M. José-Yacamán ◽  
M. Marín-Almazo ◽  
J.A. Ascencio

The field of catalysis is one of the most important areas of the nano-sciences for many years. in deed the goal of having a catalyst, with the maximum active area exposed to a chemical reaction, has produced enormous amount of research in nanoparticles. Particularly, the metal nanoparticles study is a very important field in catalysis. Electron Microscopy is one of the techniques that have played a mayor role on studding nanoparticles. Since bright field images, dark field techniques, to the high-resolution atomic images of nanoparticles and more recently the High Angle Annular dark field images or Z-contrast. However this technique provides only indirect evidence of the atomic arrangements on the particles. High Resolution Electron Microscopy (HREM) still appears as a very powerful technique to study nanoparticles and their internal structure. Among the most interesting metals to study is the palladium, which acts for instance as excellent catalyst for hydrogenation of unsaturated hydrocarbons and has many other applications such as environmental catalysts.


1997 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 352-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.P. Liu ◽  
R.E. Dunin-Borkowski ◽  
C.B. Boothroyd ◽  
P.D. Brown ◽  
C.J. Humphreys

Abstract: The compositional profile of a narrow layer of InAsxPl−x in InP has been determined using energy-filtered Fresnel contrast analysis, high-resolution electron microscopy (HREM), and high-angle annular dark-field (HAADF) imaging. The consistency of the results obtained using the three techniques is discussed, and conclusions are drawn both about the validity of interpreting the magnitude of Fresnel contrast data quantitatively and about the degree to which high-angle annular dark-field images of such materials are affected by inelastic scattering and strain.


Author(s):  
Z. L. Wang ◽  
J. Bentley

The success of obtaining atomic-number-sensitive (Z-contrast) images in scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) has shown the feasibility of imaging composition changes at the atomic level. This type of image is formed by collecting the electrons scattered through large angles when a small probe scans across the specimen. The image contrast is determined by two scattering processes. One is the high angle elastic scattering from the nuclear sites,where ϕNe is the electron probe function centered at bp = (Xp, yp) after penetrating through the crystal; F denotes a Fourier transform operation; D is the detection function of the annular-dark-field (ADF) detector in reciprocal space u. The other process is thermal diffuse scattering (TDS), which is more important than the elastic contribution for specimens thicker than about 10 nm, and thus dominates the Z-contrast image. The TDS is an average “elastic” scattering of the electrons from crystal lattices of different thermal vibrational configurations,


1991 ◽  
Vol 238 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Liu ◽  
Y. Cheng ◽  
G. D. Lewen ◽  
M. B. Stearns

ABSTRACTThe structures of e-beam evaporated Pd/V multilayer thin films, which were fabricated at different substrate temperatures, have been characterized by high-angle annular dark-field microscopy and high resolution electron microscopy techniques. X-ray scattering and crosssectional electron microscopy showed that both the Pd and V layers are composed of small textured crystallites with dominant orientations of Pd (111) and V (110). It is found that Pd/V multilayers with high chemical modulation can be fabricated at substrate temperatures around 350 K and at a deposition rate of 0.2 nm/s. Here high-angle annular dark-field microscopy has been shown to provide direct information about the compositional variation of the interlayers of these ML.


Author(s):  
M. K. Lamvik ◽  
J. M. Pullman ◽  
A. V. Crewe

Negative staining and high resolution shadowing have been extensively used for structural studies in electron microscopy. However, these techniques cover the specimen with a layer of heavy salt or metal, and hence do not allow determination of true mass distribution or localization of specific sites using heavy atom markers. A prerequisite for such structural studies is an examination of unstained specimens. For thin specimens dark field microscopy must be used to obtain adequate contrast. The scanning transmission electron microscope is preferred for such studies since elastic, energyloss, and unscattered electrons can be recorded and analyzed quantitatively to form images with a minimum of beam-induced damage.


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