Dra. Maria Chiara Spadaro - Nanomaterials Lab, College of Engineering, Swansea University, Regne Unit

Quan

Informació de contacte

Nom de contacte

Ana De La Osa

Correu electrònic

events@icn2.cat

The development of growth techniques with desired nanoparticle shape and size is an aspect of major interest in the scientific research on nanotechnology. Nanoparticles with a specific shape and size show particular properties can be exploited in several fields, such as magnetism, plasmonics and catalysis.
The latter is a growing multidisciplinary area since, thanks to this process, it is possible to produce hydrogen (H2), converting solar energy into chemical energy to provide a sustainable supply of clean energy and, in parallel, reduce the production of harmful emissions. H2 is potentially an ideal energy carrier, since when it is combined with O2 in a fuel cell, the chemical energy stored in the H-H bond is released producing only water. One of the main challenges is the control of both composition, structure, size and morphology of the catalyst particles involved in the reactions.
In order to control and study in detail the properties of the produced nanoparticles, it is important to characterize these systems, using techniques with a high-resolution degree; transmission electron microscopy is an optimal technique thanks to the possibility to obtain information on nanoparticles with a high spatial resolution degree.
Furthermore, performing further analysis on the TEM acquired images, it is possible to evaluate the strain field that originates, as an example, from the reticular mismatch of the constituent materials. To unambiguously investigate specific TEM or STEM images characteristic features, EM image simulation is required by using multislice and other methods.