Credit: Brookhaven National Laboratory
Dong Su in the control room of the aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope (Hitachi HD2700C) at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility at Brookhaven Lab. On the computer screens are images of the platinum-based nanoplates that Su and his collaborators developed. The nanoplates have a thick, ordered shell of platinum that surrounds a platinum and lead alloyed core. This special structure is thought to be behind the high catalytic activity and stability of the nanoplates.