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Towards full-structure determination of bimetallic nanoparticles with an aberration-corrected electron microscope

Nature Nanotechnology volume 5, pages 843–847 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

To fully understand the properties of functional nanostructures such as catalytic nanoclusters1, it is necessary to know the positions of all the atoms in the nanostructure2. The catalytic properties of metal nanoclusters can often be improved by the addition of a second metal3,4, but little is known about the role of the different metals in these bimetallic catalysts, or about their interactions with each other and the support material5. Here we show that aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy6,7 of supported rhodium–iridium clusters, combined with dynamic multislice image simulations, can identify individual atoms, map the full structure, and determine changes in the positions of metal atoms in sequential images. This approach could help in the development of new and improved catalysts and other functional nanostructures.

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Figure 1: Sequentially taken STEM Z-contrast images and intensity surface plot of a rhodium–iridium cluster.
Figure 2: Quantification of experimental and simulated images.
Figure 3: Three-dimensional models showing the structures of the cluster determined by quantitative analysis.
Figure 4: Structure of a typical rhodium–iridium cluster.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF, grant no. CTS-0500511 to V.O.), by the US Department of Energy (DOE, grant no. DE-FG02-04ER15600 to A.U.) and by ExxonMobil. The STEM images were acquired at Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Shared Research Equipment User Facility, supported by the Division of Scientific User Facilities, Basic Energy Sciences, DOE.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of California-Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, 95616, California, USA

    Volkan Ortalan, Alper Uzun, Bruce C. Gates & Nigel D. Browning

  2. Chemistry, Materials and Life Sciences Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Avenue, Livermore, 94550, California, USA

    Nigel D. Browning

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  1. Volkan Ortalan
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  2. Alper Uzun
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Contributions

V.O. performed the experiments and wrote the paper. A.U. performed synthesis of the catalyst samples. V.O., A.U., B.C.G. and N.D.B. conceived and designed the experiments. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Volkan Ortalan.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Ortalan, V., Uzun, A., Gates, B. et al. Towards full-structure determination of bimetallic nanoparticles with an aberration-corrected electron microscope. Nature Nanotech 5, 843–847 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2010.234

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