Atomic-resolution spectroscopic imaging of ensembles of nanocatalyst particles across the life of a fuel cell

The thousandfold increase in data-collection speed enabled by aberration-corrected optics allows us to overcome an electron microscopy paradox - how to obtain atomic-resolution chemical structure in individual nanoparticles, yet record a statistically significant sample from an inhomogeneous population. This allowed us to map hundreds of Pt-Co nanoparticles to show atomic-scale elemental distributions across different stages of the catalyst aging in a proton-exchange-membrane fuel cell, and relate Pt-shell thickness to treatment, particle size, surface orientation, and ordering.