Authors

Jing Li

Type

Text

Type

Thesis

Advisor

Su, Dong | Orlov, Alexander | Xin, Huolin.

Date

2015-08-01

Keywords

Materials Science

Department

Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

Language

en_US

Source

This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree.

Identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/11401/76318

Publisher

The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.

Format

application/pdf

Abstract

Nanostructured materials have attracted a growing attention as a novel solution of enlarging capacity and efficiency of energy storage devices. As a result, characterization of nanostructured materials is of paramount importance. Development of electron microscopy renders a practical method to observe and analyze nanostructured materials. In this thesis, two dimensional and three dimensional electron microscopy characterizations have been used to investigate nanomaterials. The nanostructured materials studied in this thesis are core-shell structured FeNiPt nanorods(NRs), NiO nanosheets and DNA origami linked nanoassemblies. I characterized the atomic-scale structures of shape-controlled ternary alloy nanocatalysts (Pt-Fe-Ni nanorods) using annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy (ADF-STEM). The elemental distribution within the nanorods were obtained using spatially resolved electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS). Our results suggested the Pt-Fe-Ni nanorods have a core-shell structure with Pt rich in the shell and, Fe and Ni rich in core. The controlleds structure of Pt-Fe-Ni NRs are suggested to account for the superior activity for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) reaction. I investigated the lithiation processes of NiO nanosheets using in situ TEM. We observed two reaction modes. With real time tracking, I was able to quantify the propagation rate of the reaction front in both reaction modes. It was found the front propagation rate of the lateral reaction mode is approximately 100 times faster than that of the core-shell reaction. This work directly unravels the spatially dependent reaction pathways in lithium-ion battery electrodes. To improve the throughput of electron tomography, we have established a model based tomographic method that only relies on the projected centroids of the nanoparticles and bypasses the image intensity. This method only requires 5-10 tilt images and it is useful for calibrating a TEM goniometer and field/scan distortions. In this thesis, I will demonstrate this new method with the reconstruction of a DNA origami linked nanoassembly. | 40 pages

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.