Unraveling the structures of nanocrystalline materials by combining TEM and XRPD

Unraveling the structures of nanocrystalline materials by combining TEM and XRPD

  • Date: Dec 16, 2022
  • Time: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Dr. Magdalena Ola Cichocka
  • IFW Dresden
  • Location: Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH, Seminar Room 1
  • Host: on invitation of Dr. Siyuan Zhang / Prof. Christina Scheu
Unraveling the structures of nanocrystalline materials by combining TEM and XRPD
Where: Seminar room 203

Knowledge of the three-dimensional (3D) atomic structures of materials is essential to a fundamental understanding of their properties. Structure determination is the first step towards understanding their functionalities that are often hidden in the details at the nanoscale. For this reason, it is very important to choose the right strategy to bring new insights into the structure analysis of complex materials. A structural study of beam-sensitive or uniquely disordered materials can be very complicated. Although there are already existing methods such as X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), the data may exhibit reflection overlap or other problems that make structure determination difficult. To overcome these limitations for nanocrystalline materials, complementary characterization techniques can be used.
Here, I will focus on 3D electron crystallography (single-crystal electron diffraction and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy) methods that have grown during the past years as hybrid methods for structure determination. Based on the presented materials [1, 2, 3], I will also emphasize that any kind of challenges can be a driving force for method development [4]. Finally, I will try to describe the general procedures for ab initio structure elucidation of disordered nanocrystals.
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