Electron-induced Ti-rich surface segregation on SrTiO3 nanoparticles

Yuyuan Lin; Jianguo Wen; Linhua Hu; James A McCarthy; Shichao Wang; Kenneth R Poeppelmeier; Laurence D Marks

doi:10.1016/j.micron.2014.05.007

Electron-induced Ti-rich surface segregation on SrTiO3 nanoparticles

Micron. 2015 Jan:68:152-157. doi: 10.1016/j.micron.2014.05.007. Epub 2014 Jun 2.

Authors

Yuyuan Lin¹, Jianguo Wen², Linhua Hu³, James A McCarthy³, Shichao Wang³, Kenneth R Poeppelmeier³, Laurence D Marks⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, United States. Electronic address: YuyuanLin2014@u.northwestern.edu.
² Electron Microscopy Center, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439, United States.
³ Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, United States.
⁴ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, United States. Electronic address: L-marks@northwestern.edu.

PMID: 24931386
DOI: 10.1016/j.micron.2014.05.007

Abstract

Atomic surface structures of nanoparticles are of interest in catalysis and other fields. Aberration-corrected HREM facilitates direct imaging of the surfaces of nanoparticles. A remaining concern of surface imaging arises from beam damage. It is important to identify the intrinsic surface structures and the ones created by electron beam irradiation in TEM. In this study, we performed aberration-corrected HREM and EELS to demonstrate that TiO and bcc type Ti islands form due to intense electron irradiation. The formation of Ti-rich islands is in agreement with previous high temperature annealing experiments on the surfaces of SrTiO3 single crystals.

Keywords: Beam damage; HREM; Nanoparticles; Simulation; Strontium titanate; Surface structure.

Publication types

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