TY - CONF A1 - Müller, Anja A1 - Swaraj, S. A1 - Sparnacci, K. A1 - Lippitz, Andreas A1 - Unger, Wolfgang T1 - Determining the shell thickness of core-shell nanoparticles using scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM) N2 - A scanning transmission x-ray microscopy (STXM) based methodology is introduced for determining the dimensions (shell thickness, core and total diameter) of core-shell nanoparticles which exhibit a strong x-ray absorption contrast and a well-defined interface between core and shell material. A low radiation dosage during data acquisition and, therefore, less x-ray beam induced damage of the sample is achieved by recording STXM images only at two predetermined energies of maximum absorption contrast, instead of recording a stack of images across the whole absorption edge. A model core-shell nanoparticle, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) cores with polystyrene (PS) shell, is used for demonstration. Near edge x-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy confirms the significant difference in x-ray absorption behavior between PTFE and PS. Additionally, due to the insolubility of styrene in PTFE a well-defined interface between particle core and shell is expected. In order to validate the STXM results, both the naked PTFE cores as well as the complete core-shell nanoparticles are examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The introduced STXM based methodology yields particle dimensions in agreement with the SEM results and provides additional information such as the position of the particle core which cannot be extracted from a SEM micrograph. T2 - Innanopart open day CY - London, UK DA - 25.04.2018 KW - STXM KW - SEM KW - PTFE KW - PS KW - Polymer KW - Core-shell nanoparticles PY - 2018 AN - OPUS4-44841 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -