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Research Article

Understanding the structural evolution of Au/WO2.7 compounds in hydrogen atmosphere by atomic scale in situ environmental TEM

Fei Hui1, Chong Li2, Yanhui Chen1, Chunhui Wang1, Jingping Huang1, Ang Li1( ), Wei Li1, Jin Zou3, Xiaodong Han1( )
Key Lab of Microstructure and Property of Advanced Materials, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China
International Laboratory for Quantum Functional Materials of Henan, School of Physics and Microelectronics, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China
School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering and Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia
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Abstract

Hydrogen energy is a resuscitated clean energy source and its sensitive detection in air is crucial due to its very low explosive limit. Metal oxide decorated with noble metal nanoparticles has been used for the enhancement of gas detection and exhibits superior sensitivity. Understanding the intrinsic mechanism of the detection and the enhancement mechanism is thus becoming a fundamental issue for the further development of novel metal/oxide compound gas-sensing materials. However, the correlation between the microstructural evolution, the charge transport and the complex sensing process has not yet been directly revealed and its atomic mechanism is still debatable. In this study, an Au/WO2.7 compound was synthesized and exhibited a strongly enhanced gas sensitivity to many reductive gases, especially H2. Aberration-corrected environmental transmission electron microscopy was used to investigate the atomic-scale microstructural evolution in situ during the reaction between H2 and Au/WO2.7 compound. Swing and sintering processes of the Au particles on the WO2.7 surface were observed under heating and gaseous environments, and no injection of hydrogen atoms was suggested. First principle calculations verified the swing and sintering processes, and they can be explained by the enhancement of H2 sensitivity.

Keywords

in situ environmental TEMH2 sensingAu/WO2.7gas-solid interface

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Nano Research
Volume 13 Issue 11,
November 2020
Pages 3019-3024
DOI: 10.1007/s12274-020-2966-7
Cite this article:
Hui F, Li C, Chen Y, et al. Understanding the structural evolution of Au/WO2.7 compounds in hydrogen atmosphere by atomic scale in situ environmental TEM. Nano Research, 2020, 13(11): 3019-3024. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2966-7
Topics:
Gold compoundsHigh resolution transmission electron microscopyMetal nanoparticlesPrecious metals

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Received: 08 May 2020
Revised: 26 June 2020
Accepted: 29 June 2020
Published: 04 August 2020
© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
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