Tuesday publication post! 📖 In this recently published work in NanoLetters, authors from the University Utrecht used the Atmosphere AX system to understand hydrogen uptake and release for optimizing hydrogen storage materials. Congratulations to Marta Perxés Perich, Jan-Willem Lankman, Claudia J. Keijzer and Jessi E. S. van der Hoeven for the great publication!
These authors used in situ 4D scanning transmission electron microscopy (4D-STEM) in a 1 bar H₂ environment and tracked the reversible hydride formation in individual palladium nanocubes with sub-nanometer resolution.
What did they find?
💠 Upon hydride formation at 125°C, the Pd lattice expanded by ~3.1%.
🔥 When hydrogen was released at 200°C, the lattice relaxed back to its original state.
🔬 This approach provides quantitative strain mapping in real time, offering new insights into how lattice distortions impact gas-solid interactions.
Using these methods, the authors were able to observe how lattice strain influences hydride formation and release, paving the way for better hydrogen storage, catalysis, and sensing technologies.
Want to read the entire work?
Find it here!
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.nanolett.5c00702
