Morphology and oxidation state of ALD-grown Pd nanoparticles on TiO2- and SrO-terminated SrTiO3 nanocuboids

Abstract

We employ SrTiO3 nanocuboid single crystals with well-defined (001) surfaces that are synthesized to have either a TiO2- or SrO-terminated surface to investigate the influence of surface termination on the morphology and the chemical property of supported metallic nanoparticles. Using such monodispersed STO nanocuboids allows for practical catalytic reaction studies as well as surface studies comparable to a single crystal model catalyst. Pd nanoparticles were grown by atomic layer deposition, which is able to control the effective coverage, chemical state, and the size of the Pd nanoparticles. The properties of Pd nanoparticles were examined by transmission electron microscopy, X-ray absorption spectroscopy, and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy. The morphology and growth pattern for the Pd nanoparticles supported on the SrTiO3 nanocuboids are shown to depend on the surface termination.