Application
News
No.P98
Electron Probe Microanalyzer
Microanalysis Using the EMPA-8050G
LAAN-A-EP-E005
n Introduction n Platinum in Ceramics
Fig. 1 Platinum Elemental Mapping
In recent years, along with progress in nanotechnology,
a variety of industrial goods have become miniaturized,
reduced in quantities, and made more precise. Since all
manufactured products consist of substances existing
on earth, where resources are limited, materials
development is being progressed with the objective of
reducing their consumption, particularly with respect to
limited resources such as rare metals. Under these
situations, the creation of nanoparticles of the materials
used has also progressed, which has required high-
resolution and high-sensitivity analysis in microscopic
regions.
The CeB6-EPMA, which has become very popular
recently, is capable of high-sensitivity and high-
resolution image observations and element analysis
(See Application News P94). Here, we introduce a
sample analysis with the FE-EPMA, which is capable of
analyzing even more microscopic regions.
Ceramic catalysts with precious metals supported by
oxides are well known. Among precious metals,
platinum (Pt) is particularly valuable. It is not very
reactive itself, but causes other substances to interact.
However, platinum deposits on the earth are very small,
so techniques have been devised to reduce its
consumption in recent years. In catalytic development,
important themes are the microminiaturization of
platinum particles and the establishment of high-
efficiency dispersion methods.
Fig. 1 shows images of platinum particles on the order
of several dozen nm in size, of which dispersiveness is
evaluated via elemental mapping analysis, using the
EPMA-8050G (FE-EPMA).
500 nm
Pt La ×40000
94
(counts)
6
60
40
35
30
28
26
24
22
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
110 nm
Pt La ×200000
36
(counts)
6
25
20
19
18
17
16
15
14
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
200 nm
Pt La ×100000
51
(counts)
12
30
26
25
24
23
22
21
20
19
18
17
16
15
14
13
500 nm
COMPO ×40000
