Dancing Nanoparticles in Hydrogen Gas

This video shows Palladium nanoparticles colliding and fusing in a hydrogen gas atmosphere, imaged live in OIST's Environmental Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM).

On the left side, you see a live video image in which individual columns of Palladium atoms can be seen.  On the right side, you can see live processing of the image, allowing analysis of the atomic planes.

Nanoparticles are excellent materials for gas applications like hydrogen storage and catalysis, owing to their very large surface area. The motivation for this research is to understand the physics of nanoparticle coalescence at an atomic scale while being exposed to reaction conditions in gas, as this is the dominant factor in degrading their performance in real-life applications. This example illustrates the unique capabilities offered by OIST's new environmental TEM.