Revealing the Activity Distribution of a Single Nanocatalyst by Locating Single Nanobubbles with Super-Resolution Microscopy

Abstract

It is challenging to uncover the catalytic activity at different locations of a single nanocatalyst for gas-generating reactions in real time. This research uses super-resolution microscopy to localize the center of single nanobubbles and reveal the local activity distribution at several to tens of nanometers accuracy. The distances between the centers of the nanobubbles and the center of the nanoplate usually distribute in a certain range from 0 to 500 nm, with the maximum population exhibiting at ∼200 nm. This research also shows that more nanobubbles appear near the tips of the Pd-Ag nanoplate compared with the edges, which indicates higher activity at the tips. In addition, the relationship between the location, lifetime, and turnover rate of the nanobubbles was also carefully studied. This work presents an effective, high-resolution method to localize the activity distribution of nanocatalysts during gas-generating reactions, such as photocatalytic water splitting, dehydrogenation, and electro-oxidation.

Imaging and Quantifying the Formation of Single Nanobubbles at Single Platinum Nanoparticles during the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

“…2 In (electro-)catalysis or corrosion, NBs are frequently employed as nano-reporters that are associated to local catalytic activity. [3][4][5] NBs can constitute intermediate states that further grow and merge into micro and macroscopic bubbles. Through the creation of a third phase sandwiched between the electrode and the solution, bubbles also deactivate electrocatalytic materials and are therefore responsible for substantial current drops, 6 which is detrimental for devices efficiency.…”

Chemical measurements of dynamically generated nanobubbles

“…密切相关, 因此可对气泡的动态变化过程进行实时监 测. 甲酸分解是制备氢气的一个重要途径 [18] , 周小春 课题组 [19,20] 通过DFM记录了单个Pd-Ag纳米片催化甲 酸分解生成氢气纳米气泡的过程(图2(a)). 该课题组首…”

“…图 2 (a) 使用DFM对单个Pd-Ag纳米片上氢气纳米气泡成 像; (b) 单个Pd-Ag纳米片上纳米气泡散射强度随时间的变 化关系; (c) Pd含量对产生氢气速率与成核速率的影响 [19] (网 络版彩图) 图 3 (a) 不同时间段内纳米气泡中心与Pd-Ag纳米片中心 间距的分布范围; (b) 纳米气泡中心距离随时间的变化和累 加直方分布图 [20] (网络版彩图)…”

Measuring the activation energy barrier for the nucleation of single nanosized vapor bubbles

“…Bubble nucleation plays critical roles in diverse fields covering boiling heat transfer (1–4), biomedical ultrasound imaging (5–7), micromotors (8, 9), and gas-generating chemical reactions (10–19). Although it was generally recognized that bubble nucleation was a highly stochastic and heterogeneous process (20, 21), such knowledge was often extracted from macroscopic observations and the microscopic understanding remained poor.…”

“…To avoid the adoption of fluorescent dyes, the generation of H 2 nanobubble was found to enhance the plasmonic scattering of single Ag/Pd nanocatalysts (12). This method was recently utilized to map the chemical activity of nanocatalyst by analyzing the location of each individual nanobubble (13). A wide-field surface plasmon resonance microscopy (SPRM) that is capable of visualizing individual nanobubbles without labeling has been recently developed by others and us (10, 33–36).…”