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Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) or Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) ? This is a question, nowadays discussed in EM labs of research and industry involved in the characterization and metrology of nanoparticles. The Scanning principle is adapted to TEM, the Transmission mode is adapted to Ultra High Resolution SEM. Can modern SEM replace TEM, reach atomic resolution even without Cs corrector or nm lateral resolution for energydispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX)?
Due to the development of a New Cold Field Emission (NCFE) electron source Hitachi SEMs SU9000 and SU8200 can deliver routinely sub-nm image resolution and EDX mappings at very high count rates and a lateral EDX resolution of a few nm. A TiO2 sample provided by BAM was analysed at 30kV using low kV STEM – simultaneously with the Through-the-lens (TTL) SE detector, the Bright Field transmitted and Dark Field transmitted signals. By this method a pixel precise information of the particles surface using SE, its chemical nature using DF-STEM and its crystalline structure using Bright Field signal is given in one 40sec scan. The advantage of this observation mode compared to Ultra Low Voltage imaging is outlined.
The EC recommendation for the definition of nanomaterial [2011/696/EU] requires the quantitative size determination of constituent particles in samples down to 1 nm. Accordingly, a material is a nanomaterial if 50 % or more of the particles are in the size range 1-100 nm. The fact that engineered nanomaterials already exist in many industrial and consumer products challenges the development of measurement methods to reliably identify, characterize and quantify their occurrence as substance and in various matrices.
The EU FP7 NanoDefine project [www.nanodefine.eu] has addressed this challenge by developing a robust, readily implementable and cost-effective measurement strategy to obtain quantitative particle size distributions and to distinguish between nano and non-nano materials according to the EU definition. Based on a comprehensive evaluation of existing methodologies and intra- and inter-lab comparisons, validated measurement methods and instrument calibration procedures have been established to reliably measure the size of particles within 1-100 nm, and beyond, including different shapes, coatings and chemical compositions in industrial materials and consumer products. Case studies prove their applicability for various sectors, including food, pigments and cosmetics.
Main outcome is the establishment of an integrated tiered approach including rapid screening (tier 1) and confirmatory methods (tier 2), and a user manual to guide end-users, such as manufacturers, in selecting appropriate methods. Another main product is the “NanoDefiner” e-Tool allowing the standardised / semi-automated selection of appropriate methods for material classification according to the EU definition. Results also contribute to standardization efforts, such as CEN TC 352 or ISO TC 229.
The synthesis of TiO2 nanoplatelets with fluorine-containing reactants is carried out using titanium (IV) butoxide as precursor and concentrated HF as shape controller, the final product requires a working up in order to eliminate or at least to reduce the amount of residual fluorides, which is realized here by well-defined thermal treatment of the samples. Bulk and surface sensitive methods namely scanning electron microscopy with energydispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX), Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) have been applied to trace the presence of any fluorides in dependence on different information depths and measurement sensitivities of these methods.
Parameters of TiO2 coatings can greatly influence their final performance in largescale applications such as photocatalytic measurements, orthopedic and/or dental prostheses, cell cultures, and dye-sensitized solar cells. From different film deposition procedures, self-assembly of TiO2 NPs in multiple layers was selected for systematic characterization. EDX, AES and ToF-SIMS analysis have been carried out in order to evaluate the functionalization of several types of TiO2 NPs differing in size, shape and surface area.
Although there are many experimental techniques for measuring particle sizes and size distributions, electron microscopy (EM) is still considered as the gold standard in this field, especially when it comes to particle sizes in the nanorange (1 nm – 100 nm). Furthermore, high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) can be applied to individual nanoparticles. To be able to extract accurate information from the EM micrographs and EDS elemental maps that are representative for the material under investigation, one needs to assure the representativity of the particles as sampled on the substrate and their homogeneous spatial distribution, to avoid operator bias when selecting the imaged area. Furthermore, agglomeration should be avoided as far as possible. Several sample preparation techniques exist since a long time, the most common way being suspending the particles in a liquid and depositing them on the grid. However, this procedure includes the drying of larger solvent amounts on the substrate itself, which can affect the spatial distribution of the deposited particles. One possibility to overcome this problem is the use of an electrospray system, where the suspension of particles is sprayed onto the substrate in charged droplets that are so small that they either dry off on the substrate immediately without affecting the position of particles, or even already during their flight time to the substrate. No dedicated commercial instruments are available for the preparation of TEM grids yet, only electrostatic deposition of aerosols on TEM grids has been reported so far. To test the prototype and assess its performance, several materials have been sprayed onto TEM grids and the resulting particle distributions were compared to more traditional sample preparation strategies like the “drop on grid” method. Operation parameters such as the sample flow-rate, capillary – substrate distance, electric field strength and sampling period length have been optimised. It was found that the particles deposited by electrospray generally show a much more homogeneous spatial distribution on the substrate and a substantial increase of the number of single particles, which are much better suited to an automatic image evaluation procedure than the agglomerated particles observed otherwise. The applicability of the technique to a broad range of materials is demonstrated by various examples, but also the influence of the substrate, the choice of the particular TEM grid, on the obtained spatial particle distribution is assessed.
Introduction: Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) is an atomic emission analytical technique, wide spreading in laboratories and industries. One way to dramatically increase its analytical results is to deposit metal NPs on the sample surface, resulting in an better version called Nanoparticle Enhanced LIBS (NELIBS). In order to better know and use this technique, the evolution of the plasma has been studied with Tomography.
The overall objective of project Improved traceability chain of nanoparticle size measurements is to improve the traceability chain for nanoparticle size measurements. The main impact will be achieved by manifold contributions to standard documents for CEN/TC 352 “Nanotechnologies”, which directly addresses the research needs of CEN, CENELEC and ETSI mandated by EC to develop standards for methods and reference materials to accurately measure the size and size distribution of nanoparticles. This will take place in collaboration with ISO/TC229 ‘Nanotechnologies’, ISO/TC24/SC4 ‘Particle characterization’ and ISO/TC201 ‘Surface analysis’/ SC9 ‘Scanning probe microscopy’.
The synthesis of TiO2 nanoplatelets with fluorine-containing reactants is carried out using Ti (IV) butoxide as precursor and concentrated HF as shape controller, the final product requires a working up in order to eliminate or at least to reduce the amount of residual fluorides, which is realized here by well-defined thermal treatment.
Qualitative investigation of the bulk elemental composition by means of EDX of TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) has identified fluorine in case of the as-synthesized samples. EDX spectra of thermally treated products exhibit either a fluorine content close to the limit of detection. The latter holds also true for the reference sample, TiO2 NPs of bipyramidal shape and prepared by a different synthesis route. For differentiation whether fluorine is present in the bulk or at the surface of the TiO2 nanoplatelets, top-surface sensitive AES and ToF-SIMS has been applied. Secondary ions of fluorine are detected in ToF-SIMS spectra of all samples, but could be roughly quantified by measurement of same reference sample as for EDX, namely TiO2 nano-bipyramids. This revealed that the amount of fluorine within1 nm depth beneath the surface is reduced in the thermally treated specimen compared to the raw product down to a content about as low as in the reference sample. AES allows analyzing analysis of the first few nanometers from the top-surface of individual NPs by point analysis. An F KLL peak has been detected at the surface of samples of as-prepared TiO2 nanoplatelets under optimized measurement conditions, but was not detectable after their calcination, which is in agreement with ToF-SIMS results. Moreover, high resolution AES on single TiO2 nanoplatelets elucidated that the surface atomic layers surrounding the TiO2 nanopaltelet contain fluorides before thermal treatment of the NPs.
Self-assembly of TiO2 nanoparticles in multiple layers by layer-by-layer deposition has been selected of different deposition procedures usually applied for fabrication of TiO2 thin films with defined and homogeneous thickness on supports of interest for the large-scale applications. The substrates tested were: conductive (FTO) glass, silica glass and titanium alloy. The selected film fabrication technique consists of the deposition of alternating layers of oppositely charged, i.e. functionalized, TiO2 nanoparticle layers with wash steps in between. The controlled assembly of TiO2 nanoparticles on the supports surface requires both a proper functionalization of the supports to promote the adhesion of the TiO2 film to the substrates and proper functionalization of TiO2 nanoparticles to allow attachment to substrate and subsequent reaction between different NP layers. The current study focusses on the analytical control of the functionalization of the substrates with 3-Aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTS) and glutaraldehyde (GA) by means of surface sensitive methods, XPS, Auger Electron Spectroscopy (AES) and ToF-SIMS. Chemical composition of surface of functionalized substrates shows differences in the degree and type of modification in dependence on substrate.
Evaluation of particle sizing techniques for implementation of the EC Definition of a nanomaterial
(2017)
Many techniques are available for measuring particle size distribution. For ideal materials (spherical particles, well dispersed) it is possible to evaluate the Performance of these methods. The performance of the analytical instrumentation for the purpose of classifying materials according to EC Definition is unknown. In this work the performance of commercially available particle sizing techniques on representative NanoDefine set of real-world testing materials (RTM) and quality control materials (QCM) for the implementation of the Definition is evaluated.