Atomic-resolution spectroscopic imaging of ensembles of nanocatalyst particles across the life of a fuel cell.

Xin, Huolin L; Mundy, Julia A; Liu, Zhongyi; Cabezas, Randi; Hovden, Robert; Kourkoutis, Lena Fitting; Zhang, Junliang; Subramanian, Nalini P et al. · Nano Lett · 2012

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

The thousand-fold increase in data-collection speed enabled by aberration-corrected optics allows us to overcome an electron microscopy paradox: how to obtain atomic-resolution chemical structure in individual nanoparticles yet record a statistically significant sample from an inhomogeneous population. This allowed us to map hundreds of Pt-Co nanoparticles to show atomic-scale elemental distributions across different stages of the catalyst aging in a proton-exchange-membrane fuel cell, and relate Pt-shell thickness to treatment, particle size, surface orientation, and ordering.

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