Synthesis and dynamics of PtSi nanoparticles on a carbon nanofilm by in-situ TEM Joule heating

In-situ transmission electron microscopy has evolved to be a unique technique to study process dynamics down to the atomic scale. Here, we show that in-situ Joule heating of carbon nanofilms facilitates the investigation of the nucleation, annealing, diffusion and evaporation of PtSi nanoparticles in a controlled way. The nanoparticles form from Pt-based hydrocarbon molecules and silicon oxide present on the amorphous carbon nanofilm. The in-situ transmission electron microscopy approach permits shedding light on the interaction between the nanoparticles and the carbon support, crucial information when aiming for stable catalytic applications. The method is versatile, allows reaching very high temperatures and could be applied to study many different combinations of bimetallic and even multimetallic high-entropy alloy nanoparticles.