Electron beam induced surface morphology changes of CeO2 nanocrystals: An in-situ aberration corrected TEM study

Hydrothermally prepared ceria cuboid nanoparticles were imaged in a 300 keV aberration corrected TEM to study the instabilities of different facets of nanoscale ceria at the atomic level. Real-time video recording at a rate of 30fps enables to closely monitor and quantify individual atomic movements. It is proposed to use quantification of electron beam induced cation movements and reconstructions as a novel probe for measurements of oxygen surface activity with nm-scale resolution, with applications in e.g. catalysis.