Atomic-resolution spectroscopic imaging of ensembles of nanocatalyst particles across the life of a fuel cell

TL;DR

This study uses advanced electron microscopy to map atomic-scale elemental distributions in hundreds of Pt-Co nanoparticles, revealing how catalyst aging affects their structure and composition in fuel cells.

Contribution

It demonstrates the ability to perform atomic-resolution spectroscopic imaging on large nanoparticle ensembles, linking structural changes to catalyst aging.

Findings

Atomic-scale elemental maps of Pt-Co nanoparticles across aging stages

Correlation of Pt-shell thickness with treatment and particle properties

Insights into catalyst degradation mechanisms

Abstract

The thousandfold increase in data-collection speed enabled by aberration-corrected optics allows us to overcome an electron microscopy paradox - how to obtain atomic-resolution chemical structure in individual nanoparticles, yet record a statistically significant sample from an inhomogeneous population. This allowed us to map hundreds of Pt-Co nanoparticles to show atomic-scale elemental distributions across different stages of the catalyst aging in a proton-exchange-membrane fuel cell, and relate Pt-shell thickness to treatment, particle size, surface orientation, and ordering.