studying-effects-temperature-on-nucleation-growth-nanoparticles

Studying the Effects of Temperature on the Nucleation and Growth of Nanoparticles by Liquid-Cell Transmission Electron Microscopy

Temperature control is a recent development that provides an additional degree of freedom to study nanochemistry by liquid cell transmission electron ...

Université de Paris – CNRS

Despite the importance of gold-palladium nanoalloys in heterogeneous catalysis, the phase stability of Au-Pd alloys still remains unclear. We report here on the alloying and chemical ordering in epitaxially-grown and post-annealed gold-palladium nanoparticles (NPs) using aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy. Au-Pd NPs with a controlled size, composition and structure were grown by pulsed laser deposition on freshly-cleaved NaCl(001) single crystals heated at 300 °C. After transfer to an amorphous carbon support, the NPs were annealed in vacuum at elevated temperatures above 400 °C for a few hours (6-10 hours) to promote chemical ordering. The as-grown NPs were mostly monocrystalline with a chemically-disordered face-centered cubic structure. Upon high-temperature annealing, a high degree of chemical ordering was observed in nanometer-sized NPs. Electron microscopy measurements showed that both L10 and L12 orders are stabilized in the Au-rich region of the Au-Pd phase diagram. These ordered phases exist at temperatures as high as 600 °C. Moreover, compositional analysis of single annealed particles revealed that the observed chemical ordering occurs in parallel to a two-tiered Ostwald ripening process. Due to this ripening process, a clear dependence between chemical composition and particle size is established during annealing with an enrichment in Pd as the NPs grow in size. Our results, besides clarifying some controversial aspects about long-range order in Au-Pd alloys, shed light on the structural stability of Au-Pd nanoalloys at elevated temperatures. 

Long-range chemical orders in Au-Pd nanoparticles revealed by aberration-corrected electron microscopy.

Many physical properties of nanoparticles (NPs) are driven by their equilibrium shape (ES). Thus, knowing the kinetic and thermodynamic parameters that affect the particle morphology is key for the rational design of NPs with targeted properties. Here, we report on the thermodynamic ES of supported monometallic palladium and bimetallic palladium-gold (Pd-Au) single-crystalline truncated nano-octahedra (TOs) studied using aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Monometallic palladium and bimetallic Pd62Au38 and Pd43Au57 TOs were grown by pulsed laser deposition on rutile titania (r-TiO2) nanorods exposing mainly (110) facets. Particle structure and dimension were first obtained from aberration-corrected high resolution TEM (HRTEM) images acquired parallel to the metal-oxide interface. By fitting an extended Wulff-Kaishev rule to the HRTEM data of the truncated octahedral thermodynamic ES in the size range of 2 to 5 nm, we secondly determined the interface and excess line energies associated with the particle-oxide-vacuum triple phase junction in Pd and Pd43Au57 TOs in the epitaxial relationship Pd(-Au)(111)101‖r-TiO2(110)[1-1-1] and in Pd62Au38 TOs in the epitaxial relationship Pd62Au38(100)101‖r-TiO2(110)[1-10]. Our results show a decrease in particle adhesion to the oxide support upon alloying Pd with Au. The loss in adhesion is tentatively attributed to an increase of the lattice strain induced at the metal-oxide interface as gold atoms are added to the palladium lattice.

Thermodynamics of faceted palladium(-gold) nanoparticles supported on rutile titania nanorods studied using transmission electron microscopy.

Over recent years, the advent of microelectromechanical system (MEMS)-type microheaters has pushed the limits of temperature controlled in situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM). In particular, by enabling the observation of the structure of materials in their application environments, temperature controlled TEM provides unprecedented insights into the link between the properties of materials and their structure in real-world problems, a clear knowledge of which is necessary for rational development of functional materials with new or improved properties. While temperature is the key parameter in such experiments, accessing the precise temperature of the sample at the nanoscale during observations still remains challenging. In the present work, we have applied aluminium plasmon nanothermometry technique that monitors the temperature dependence of the volume plasmon of Al nanospheres using electron energy loss spectroscopy for in situ local temperature determination over MEMS-type microheaters. With access to local temperatures between room temperature to 550 C, we have assessed the spatial and temporal stabilities of these microheaters when they operate at different setpoint temperatures both under vacuum and in the presence of a static H gas environment. Temperature comparisons performed under the two environments show discrepancies between local and setpoint temperatures.

Nanoscale temperature measurement during temperature controlled in situ TEM using Al plasmon nanothermometry.

The selective shortening of gold nanorods (NRs) is a directional etching process that has been intensively studied by UV-Vis spectroscopy because of its direct impact on the optical response of these plasmonic nanostructures. Here, liquid-cell transmission electron microscopy is exploited to visualize this peculiar corrosion process at the nanoscale and study the impacts of reaction kinetics on the etching mechanisms. In situ imaging reveals that anisotropic etching requires a chemical environment with a low etching power to make the tips of NRs the only reaction site for the oxidation process. Then, aberration-corrected TEM and atomistic simulations were combined to demonstrate that the disparity between the reactivity of the body and the ends of NRs does not derive from their crystal structure but results from an inhomogeneous surface functionalization. In a general manner, this work highlights the necessity to consider the organic/inorganic natures of nanostructures to understand their chemical reactivity.

Article	Year
Long-range chemical orders in Au-Pd nanoparticles revealed by aberration-corrected electron microscopy. Nanoscale\| PubMed ID: 25079393	2014
Thermodynamics of faceted palladium(-gold) nanoparticles supported on rutile titania nanorods studied using transmission electron microscopy. Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP\| PubMed ID: 29708561	2018
Nanoscale temperature measurement during temperature controlled in situ TEM using Al plasmon nanothermometry. Ultramicroscopy\| PubMed ID: 31739188	2020
Selective shortening of gold nanorods: when surface functionalization dictates the reactivity of nanostructures. Nanoscale\| PubMed ID: 33155612	2020

Jaysen Nelayah

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