Structure Determination of Superatom Metallic Clusters using Rapid Scanning Electron Diffraction

ALINA BRUMA; U. SANTIAGO; D. ALDUCIN; G. PLASCENCIA-VILLA; R. L. WHETTEN; M. J. YACAMÁN; M. M. MARISCAL

JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY C

AMER CHEMICAL SOC

Lugar: Washington; Año: 2016 vol. 120 p. 1902 - 1908

1932-7447

Experimental analysis of electron diffraction patterns for ligand-stabilizedgold clusters in transmission electron microscopy is a cumbersome procedure, due toelectron beam−induced irradiation damage. We propose herein a method forinstantaneous data collection using scanning nanobeam electron diffraction and thesubsequent determination of the crystal metallic clusters. The procedure has been testedon a known structure, namely Au102(p-MBA)44nanoclusters and has been compared withtheir structure theoretically determined by ones previously obtained from X-ray diffractionanalysis. The method can be unambiguously applied for the case of any nanoscale systemsusceptible to electron beam damage and it is capable to register the rotation effect on themetallic clusters caused due to the electron beam interaction during the raster scanning onthe sample