4D-STEM Strain Mapping of Polycrystalline Core-shell Nanoparticles
- 1Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science
- 2Utrecht University
Abstract
Metal nanoparticles play a key role in sustainable chemical conversions, energy storage and electronics. Lattice strain strongly influences the functional properties of these nanoparticles and enables precise tuning of their properties. Strain can vary substantially within single nanoparticles that exhibit defect sites and grain boundaries. However, experimentally evaluating local strain distributions within such polycrystalline nanoparticles is challenging and requires the development of new characterization methods. In this work, we successfully assess strain in complex polycrystalline nanoparticles with sub-nanometer spatial resolution by developing a novel 4D-STEM analysis method. For a strain-engineered trimetallic Pt-shell AuCu-core nanoparticles system, we show that most core-shell nanoparticles have homogeneous strain distributions, with slight strain relaxation in the shell regions. At defect sites and near grain boundaries, the local variations in strain become larger and the strain distribution significantly broadens compared to defect free crystal domains. We demonstrate that our method can be routinely applied to large numbers of polycrystalline nanoparticles and expect that our analysis method is applicable to a wide range of nanostructured materials, enabling detailed strain-functionality correlations in functional nanomaterials.
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BibTeX
@misc{jonasse20264dstem,
title = {{4D-STEM Strain Mapping of Polycrystalline Core-shell Nanoparticles}},
author = {Just P. Jonasse and Marta Perxés Perich and Marijn A. van Huis and Jessi E.S. van der Hoeven},
howpublished = {ChemRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.26434/chemrxiv.15008328/v1},
url = {https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15008328/v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - 4D-STEM Strain Mapping of Polycrystalline Core-shell Nanoparticles
AU - Just P. Jonasse
AU - Marta Perxés Perich
AU - Marijn A. van Huis
AU - Jessi E.S. van der Hoeven
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/04
PB - ChemRxiv
DO - 10.26434/chemrxiv.15008328/v1
UR - https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15008328/v1
AB - Metal nanoparticles play a key role in sustainable chemical conversions, energy storage and electronics. Lattice strain strongly influences the functional properties of these nanoparticles and enables precise tuning of their properties. Strain can vary substantially within single nanoparticles that exhibit defect sites and grain boundaries. However, experimentally evaluating local strain distributions within such polycrystalline nanoparticles is challenging and requires the development of new characterization methods. In this work, we successfully assess strain in complex polycrystalline nanoparticles with sub-nanometer spatial resolution by developing a novel 4D-STEM analysis method. For a strain-engineered trimetallic Pt-shell AuCu-core nanoparticles system, we show that most core-shell nanoparticles have homogeneous strain distributions, with slight strain relaxation in the shell regions. At defect sites and near grain boundaries, the local variations in strain become larger and the strain distribution significantly broadens compared to defect free crystal domains. We demonstrate that our method can be routinely applied to large numbers of polycrystalline nanoparticles and expect that our analysis method is applicable to a wide range of nanostructured materials, enabling detailed strain-functionality correlations in functional nanomaterials.
ER -