Atomic imaging of oxide-supported metallic nanocrystals

ACS Nano. 2011 Dec 27;5(12):9755-60. doi: 10.1021/nn203273e. Epub 2011 Nov 2.

Abstract

The nucleation of noble metal nanoparticles on oxide surfaces can lead to dramatic enhancements in catalytic activity that are related to the atomic-scale formation of the nanoparticles and interfaces. For the case of submonolayer Pt deposited on the 2×1 SrTiO(3)(001) surface atomic-force microscopy shows the formation of nanoparticles. We use X-ray standing wave (XSW) atomic imaging to show that these nanoparticles are composed of Pt face-centered-cubic nanocrystals with cube-on-cube epitaxy laterally correlated to the substrate unit cell. The phase sensitivity of the XSW allows for a direct measurement of the interface offset between the two unit cells along the c-axis. Different Pt coverages lead to differences in the observed XSW image of the interfacial structure, which is explained by a proposed model based on the Pt-Pt interaction becoming stronger than the Pt-substrate interaction as the global coverage is increased from 0.2 to 0.6 ML.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Macromolecular Substances / chemistry
  • Materials Testing
  • Microscopy, Atomic Force / methods*
  • Molecular Conformation
  • Nanostructures / chemistry*
  • Nanostructures / ultrastructure*
  • Oxides / chemistry*
  • Particle Size
  • Platinum / chemistry*
  • Surface Properties

Substances

  • Macromolecular Substances
  • Oxides
  • Platinum