Investigating the thermal stability of metallic and non-metallic nanoparticles using a novel graphene oxide-based transmission electron microscopy heating-membrane
Investigating the thermal stability of metallic and non-metallic nanoparticles using a novel graphene oxide-based transmission electron microscopy heating-membrane
byN. M. Batra, P. Doggali, S. P. Nunes, P. M. F. J. Costa
In recent years, graphene has been explored as a heating membrane for studying hightemperature dynamics inside the transmission electron microscope (TEM) due to several
limitations with the existing silicon nitride-based membrane. However, the transfer of monolayer
graphene films for TEM experiments is challenging and requires many complicated steps with a
minimum success rate. This work developed a novel in situ heating platform by combining the
graphene oxide (GO) flakes in the pre-patterned chips. The isolated GO flake was self-suspended
between the metal electrodes by a simple drop-casting process. The GO was reduced and
characterized using Raman and electron energy-loss spectroscopy. Furthermore, a GO-based
heater was used to investigate the thermal stability of gold and silica nanoparticles. The gold
nanoparticles evaporated non-uniformly and left an empty carbon shell, while silica disappeared
uniformly by etching carbon support. We successfully demonstrated a GO flake as a heating
membrane to study high temperature thermal dynamic reactions: melting/evaporation,
agglomeration, Rayleigh instability, and formation/or removal of carbon in the nanoparticles.