Area of research
Materials Chemistry · Mechanical Engineering
Research interest
Research topics from publications: Gaining Control over Radiolytic Synthesis of Uniform Sub-3-nanometer Palladium Nanoparticles: Use of Aromatic Liquids in the Electron Microscope; Controlled Radiolytic Synthesis in the Fluid Stage. Towards Understanding the Effect of the Electron Beam in Liquids. Representative work: Synthesizing nanomaterials of uniform shape and size is of critical importance to access and manipulate the novel structure-property relationships arising at the nanoscale, such as catalytic activity. In this work, we synthesize Pd nanoparticles with well-controlled size in the sub-3 nm range using scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) in combination with an in situ liquid stage. We use an aromatic hydrocarbon (toluene) as a solvent that is very resistant to high-energy electron irradiation, which creates a net reducing environment without the need for additives to scavenge oxidizing radicals. The primary reducing species is molecular hydrogen, which is a widely used reductant in