Helium Ion Microscopy for Imaging and Quantifying Porosity at the Nanoscale
Matthew J Burch1, Anton V Ievlev1, Kyle Mahady2
1The Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences and the Institute for Functional Imaging of Materials, Oak Ridge National Laboratory , Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, United States.
Analytical Chemistry
|December 12, 2017
Summary
Helium Ion Microscopy (HIM) offers advanced imaging and pore quantification for nanoporous materials like SiO2 catalyst supports, overcoming limitations of traditional gas absorption methods.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Nanotechnology
- Analytical Chemistry
Background:
- Nanoporous materials are crucial for energy, drug delivery, and agriculture.
- Current analytical methods for pore characterization, like gas absorption, have limitations including low throughput and lack of direct visualization.
- Accurate quantification of surface structure, pore shape, and size is essential for optimizing material performance.
Purpose of the Study:
- To demonstrate Helium Ion Microscopy (HIM) as a powerful tool for imaging and quantifying nanopores.
- To apply HIM for analyzing industrially relevant silicon dioxide (SiO2) catalyst supports.
- To establish a theoretical, experimental, and analytical framework for automated pore structure visualization and quantification.
Main Methods:
- Utilized Helium Ion Microscopy (HIM) for high-resolution imaging of nanoporous SiO2 catalyst supports.
- Employed image data analytics to quantify pore characteristics from HIM data.
- Compared HIM results with traditional gas absorption techniques for validation.
Main Results:
- Successfully imaged and quantified surface pores in SiO2 catalyst supports using HIM.
- Demonstrated full statistical agreement between pore quantification results from HIM and gas absorption.
- Developed an automated framework for visualization and quantification of pore structures.
Conclusions:
- HIM provides a superior alternative to gas absorption for nanopore characterization, offering direct visualization and high throughput.
- The presented framework enables automated and accurate analysis of pore structures in diverse materials.
- This approach has broad applicability for materials science, catalysis, and nanotechnology research.
