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    For the purpose of assessing the risk of nanoparticles or of the products incorporating them, it is important to specify clearly the physical and chemical properties of these nanoparticles or products. High resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) offers the unique ability to observe nanoparticles (or any solid material) directly in real space at or close to the atomic scale, i.e., the scale at which they are ultimately defined. With modern HRTEM instruments, lattice or structure images of very small crystals (crystallites) or very small regions in larger crystals can be obtained with 0.2-0.3 nm (2-3 angstroms) resolution (less than 0.2 nm with dedicated intermediate--or high-voltage HRTEM instruments). No general conclusions applicable to all nanoparticle-based products are possible regarding the risks. Therefore, each product and process involving nanoparticles must be considered separately.
    Angstrom
    Characterization
    Nanomaterials
    Lattice (music)
    Citations (0)
    CaTiO3 films with an average thickness of 0.5 nm were deposited onto γ-Al2O3 by Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) and then characterized by a range of techniques, including X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and High-Resolution, Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM). The results demonstrate that the films form two-dimensional crystallites over the entire surface. Lattice fringes from HRTEM indicate that the crystallites range in size from 5 to 20 nm and are oriented in various directions. Films of the same thickness on SiO2 remained amorphous, indicating that the support played a role in forming the crystallites.
    Deposition
    Citations (11)
    Aberration-corrected high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) has been applied to resolve the atomic structure of a complex layered crystal, (PbS)(1.14)NbS(2), which comprises a high density of incommensurate interfaces. The strong suppression of image delocalization and the favourable contrast transfer under negative C(s) imaging (NCSI) conditions have been exploited for obtaining HRTEM images which directly reveal the projected crystal structure and allow to study lattice imperfections, like stacking disorder and layer undulations, with atomic scale resolution. The advantages of aberration-corrected HRTEM over conventional HRTEM are demonstrated by direct comparison of experimental images and computer simulations.
    Lattice (music)
    Abstract The analysis of the atomic structure of grain boundaries is often performed through the use of high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). A complication of the HRTEM technique is the inability to analyze directly the experimental images in order to determine projected atomic models of lattice defects. Since contrast features in HRTEM images, in general, do not correspond directly to atomic positions, experimental images are typically evaluated qualitatively through comparison with image simulation. Recently, the interest in quantitatively measuring the atomic structure of internal interfaces for comparison with theoretical calculations has motivated the development of computational methodologies to analyze HRTEM images.123 In this paper, the quantitative analysis of HRTEM images of twin boundaries in semiconductors and metals is described. AΣ=3 coherent twin boundary in GaP was imaged along the <110> zone in a JEOL-4000EX HRTEM at Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore.
    Least-squares function approximation
    Citations (1)
    A new modulated structure consisting of periodic (110) stacking faults (SFs) in the α-Fe2O3 nanowires (NWs) formed by the thermal oxidation of Fe foils is reported, using a combination of high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) observations and HRTEM image simulations. The periodicity of the modulated structure is 1.53 nm, which is ten times (300) interplanar spacing and can be described by a shift of every ten (300) planes with 1/2 the interplanar spacing of the (110) plane. An atomic model for the Fe2O3 structure is proposed to simulate the modulated structure. HRTEM simulation results confirm that the modulated structure in α-Fe2O3 NWs is caused by SFs.