Tracking the Mn Diffusion in the Carbon-Supported Nanoparticles Through the Collaborative Analysis of Atom Probe and Evaporation Simulation

Abstract

Carbon-supported nanoparticles have been used widely as efficient catalysts due to their enhanced surface-to-volume ratio. To investigate their structure–property relationships, acquiring 3D elemental distribution is required. Here, carbon-supported Pt, PtMn alloy, and ordered Pt3Mn nanoparticles are synthesized and analyzed with atom probe tomography as model systems. A significant difference of Mn distribution after the heat-treatment was found. Finally, the field evaporation behavior of the carbon support was discussed and each acquired reconstruction was compared with computational results from an evaporation simulation. This paper provides a guideline for studies using atom probe tomography on the heterogeneous carbon-supported nanoparticle system that leads to insights toward a wide variety of applications.

Exploring the Surface Segregation of Rh Dopants in PtNi Nanoparticles through Atom Probe Tomography Analysis

“…For characterization of multicomponent nanocatalysts, scanning transmission electron microscopy-energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (STEM-EDS) is commonly used for elemental mapping of nanocatalysts and is increasingly complemented by atom probe tomography (APT). − APT has the ability to measure elemental distribution in three dimensions with high chemical sensitivity and subnanometer spatial resolution and as such can address issues associated with the two-dimensional projected image obtained by STEM-EDS that makes analysis of in-depth compositional distribution in three dimension (3D) challenging . APT also exhibits an equal sensitivity to both light and heavy elements, whereas STEM-EDS is relatively less sensitive to light elements …”