TEM Characterization of Metallic Nanocatalysts

Abstract

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques, including scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM); X-ray energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS); electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS); selected area (SA), nano-beam (NB), and convergent-beam (CB) electron diffraction (ED); electron tomography (ET); and electron holography, are powerful in characterizing metallic nanocatalysts at both high spatial resolution (∼0.05 nm) and high energy resolution (∼0.1 eV). This chapter will review recently published results on the relationship between the structure and catalytic properties of metallic catalysts from the prospective of electron microscopy. As there already exist excellent books and reviews giving insights into the different TEM techniques [1–6], this chapter will avoid in-depth discussions on electron microscopy techniques and tune its focus toward the application of (S)TEM on metallic nanocatalysts, especially on key issues of structural and chemical characterization; it will also introduce the recent developments in in situ environmental TEM techniques. I sincerely hope that this chapter would be of help to those researchers who come from a background of materials or chemistry and who are interested in the application of TEM characterization. Within such limited space, this chapter could not be exhaustive in covering all TEM-related publications, but would instead put an emphasis on those works published in the last 5 years that are of significant value.