Structural analysis of nanocrystals by pair distribution function combining electron diffraction with crystal tilting

Autor: Linshuo Guo, Shitao Wu, Zhengyang Zhou, Yanhang Ma
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2024
Předmět:
Zdroj: IUCrJ, Vol 11, Iss 2, Pp 202-209 (2024)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2052-2525
20522525
DOI: 10.1107/S2052252524001064
Popis: As an important characterization method, pair distribution function (PDF) has been extensively used in structural analysis of nanomaterials, providing key insights into the degree of crystallinity, atomic structure, local disorder etc. The collection of scattering signals with good statistics is necessary for a reliable structural analysis. However, current conventional electron diffraction experiments using PDF (ePDF) are limited in their ability to acquire continuous diffraction rings for large nanoparticles. Herein, a new method – tilt-ePDF – is proposed to improve the data quality and compatibility of ePDF by a combination of electron diffraction and specimen tilting. In the present work, a tilt-series of electron diffraction patterns was collected from gold nanoparticles with three different sizes and a standard sample polycrystalline aluminium film for ePDF analysis. The results show that tilt-ePDF can not only enhance the continuity of diffraction rings, but can also improve the signal-to-noise ratio in the high scattering angle range. As a result, compared with conventional ePDF data, tilt-ePDF data provide structure parameters with a better accuracy and lower residual factors in the refinement against the crystal structure. This method provides a new way of utilizing ePDF to obtain accurate local structure information from nanoparticles.
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