New insights into interfaces of metals, oxides and nanoparticles via APT

In many materials, internal interfaces and surfaces are governing their properties. Due to the inherently atomic scale of interfaces, they have notoriously been elusive to structural and chemical analysis, limiting our current understanding about their behavior. Atom probe tomography, as a single atom sensitive mass spectrometry method with atomic resolution achievable, can significantly add to the understanding of interfaces. In this talk, I will present results on the analysis of local chemistry at grain boundaries in metals and oxides and the challenges associated with the data interpretation. This will also include nanomaterials such as nanoparticles and nanowires, where surface distributions of the chemical elements can be investigated and correlated with the particle’s properties.