Revealing the atomic ordering of binary intermetallics using in situ heating techniques at multilength scales.

Ordered intermetallic nanoparticles are promising electrocatalysts with enhanced activity and durability for the oxygen-reduction reaction (ORR) in proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). The ordered phase is generally identified based on the existence of superlattice ordering peaks in powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD). However, after employing a widely used postsynthesis annealing treatment, we have found that claims of "ordered" catalysts were possibly/likely mixed phases of ordered intermetallics and disordered solid solutions. Here, we employed in situ heating, synchrotron-based, X-ray diffraction to quantitatively investigate the impact of a variety of annealing conditions on the degree of ordering of large ensembles of Pt3Co nanoparticles. Monte Carlo simulations suggest that Pt3Co nanoparticles have a lower order-disorder phase transition (ODPT) temperature relative to the bulk counterpart. Furthermore, we employed microscopic-level in situ heating electron microscopy to directly visualize the morphological changes and the formation of both fully and partially ordered nanoparticles at the atomic scale. In general, a higher degree of ordering leads to more active and durable electrocatalysts. The annealed Pt3Co/C with an optimal degree of ordering exhibited significantly enhanced durability, relative to the disordered counterpart, in practical membrane electrode assembly (MEA) measurements. The results highlight the importance of understanding the annealing process to maximize the degree of ordering in intermetallics to optimize electrocatalytic activity.

Effect of Metal d Band Position on Anion Redox in Alkali-Rich Sulfides.

New energy storage methods are emerging to increase the energy density of state-of-the-art battery systems beyond conventional intercalation electrode materials. For instance, employing anion redox can yield higher capacities compared with transition metal redox alone. Anion redox in sulfides has been recognized since the early days of rechargeable battery research. Here, we study the effect of d-p overlap in controlling anion redox by shifting the metal d band position relative to the S p band. We aim to determine the effect of shifting the d band position on the electronic structure and, ultimately, on charge compensation. Two isostructural sulfides LiNaFeS2 and LiNaCoS2 are directly compared to the hypothesis that the Co material should yield more covalent metal-anion bonds. LiNaCoS2 exhibits a multielectron capacity of ≥1.7 electrons per formula unit, but despite the lowered Co d band, the voltage of anion redox is close to that of LiNaFeS2. Interestingly, the material suffers from rapid capacity fade. Through a combination of solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, Co and S X-ray absorption spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and partial density of states calculations, we demonstrate that oxidation of S nonbonding p states to S2 2- occurs in early states of charge, which leads to an irreversible phase transition. We conclude that the lower energy of Co d bands increases their overlap with S p bands while maintaining S nonbonding p states at the same higher energy level, thus causing no alteration in the oxidation potential. Further, the higher crystal field stabilization energy for octahedral coordination over tetrahedral coordination is proposed to cause the irreversible phase transition in LiNaCoS2.

Time multiplexed deep reactive ion etching of germanium and silicon-A comparison of mechanisms and application to x-ray optics.

Although the mechanisms of deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) of silicon have been reported extensively, very little by comparison has been discussed concerning DRIE of germanium. By directly comparing silicon and germanium etching in a time multiplexed DRIE process, the authors extract significant differences in etch mechanisms from a design of experiment and discuss how these differences are relevant to the design and fabrication of silicon and germanium collimating channel array x-ray optics. The differences are illuminated by characteristics such as reactive ion etching (RIE)-lag, aspect ratio dependent etching, and sidewall passivation. Specifically, the authors demonstrate the more severe nature of RIE-lag in germanium, especially at aspect ratios exceeding 13:1. In addition, the differences in the profile evolution between silicon and germanium are shown to be a result of differences in sidewall passivation. There is also a correlation between the different sidewall passivation and the inherent lack of scalloping in the case of germanium DRIE.