Morphology and Electronic Structure of the Oxide Shell on the Surface of Iron Nanoparticles

• Published in: Journal of the American Chemical Society Vol. 131; no. 25; pp. 8824 - 8832
• Main Authors: Wang, Chongmin, Baer, Donald R, Amonette, James E, Engelhard, Mark H, Antony, Jiji, Qiang, You
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 01.07.2009; American Chemical Society (ACS)
• Subjects: core-shell structure; EELS; ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE; Electrons; Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory; Fe nanoparticles; initial oxidation; IRON; Iron - chemistry; IRON OXIDES; MATERIALS SCIENCE; Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; Models, Molecular; MORPHOLOGY; Nanoparticles - chemistry; Nanoparticles - ultrastructure; NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY; NANOSTRUCTURES; Oxides - chemistry; Particle Size; Surface Properties; X-Ray Diffraction

An iron (Fe) nanoparticle exposed to air at room temperature will be instantly covered by an oxide shell that is typically ∼3 nm thick. The nature of this native oxide shell, in combination with the underlying Fe0 core, determines the physical and chemical behavior of the core−shell nanoparticle. On...