Structural atomic study in platinum heterogeneous catalyst by aberration-corrected STEM

The atomic and structural analysis of platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs) heterogeneous catalysts was carried out using the scanning transmission electron microscopy with spherical aberration-corrected (Cs-STEM) technique. The corrected spherical aberration coefficients in the convergent electron beam under focus and over focus made it possible to obtain subangstrom resolution to perfectly identify positions and atomic columns in PtNPs supported on magnetite (Fe3O4). The images formed in high-angle annular dark field (HAADF), allowed to observe PtNPs < 2 nm, crystalline defects, steps, twin boundaries and disorder in the atomic columns, as well as an estimate of the number of atoms contains in a cluster of PtNPs according to our 3D simulation. Hence, the perspective of this work is to study high resolution HAADF images to extract as much information as possible according to the challenges and opportunities involved the use and development of new systems used in nanocatalysis.

Automated summary

The study conducted atomic and structural analysis of PtNPs heterogeneous catalysts using Cs-STEM technique, providing subangstrom resolution images to observe characteristics of PtNPs and defects in atomic columns. By studying high-resolution HAADF images, as much information as possible can be extracted to address the challenges and opportunities in nanocatalysis.