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[[Vol. 39]Pair Distribution Function Analysis Offers New Insights into the Structure and Identity of Nanomaterials_ WPI-MANA.pdf](https://mdr.nims.go.jp/filesets/8e330ef7-6374-4410-bc2e-f393a7dd986f/download)

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International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (WPI-MANA)

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[[Research Highlights Vol.39] Pair Distribution Function Analysis Offers New Insights into the Structure and Identity of Nanomaterials](https://mdr.nims.go.jp/datasets/d46b36ac-0d6f-4fc0-bedc-9665dfd705f2)

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2022/04/04 10:06 Pair Distribution Function Analysis Offers New Insights into the Structure and Identity of Nanomaterials| MANAhttps://www.nims.go.jp/mana/research/highlights/vol39.html 1/3Previous  Index  NextResearch Highlights[Vol. 39]Pair Distribution Function Analysis Offers New Insights into the Structure andIdentity of Nanomaterials30 Jun, 2018Figure: There is room for further research in identity and structures of nanomaterials, thoughthese two are investigated naturally in conventional material research.Satoshi Tominaka is a scientist at International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA) andinternationally acknowledged for research on the applications of pair distribution functions (PDF)for the analysis of nanomaterials. “The structural analysis of nanomaterials is critical forunderstanding their basic properties from a fundamentals scientific perspective and forapplications,” says Tominaka. “My approach to attain a deeper understanding of the purity andstructural phases of nanomaterials is based on using PDFs. They offer powerful insights into thestructural properties of nanomaterials and overcoming the limitations of X-ray diffraction analysisat the atomic scale.”Although PDF based analysis has a long history in the analysis of amorphous materials, and morerecently the analysis of crystalline structures with third generation synchrotron radiations sources,PDF analysis of nanomaterials is still in its infancy.Concisely, PDF analysis yields detailed information about the physical relationships betweendistances of atom pairs—for example Au-Au in Au crystals—and the density of the pairs in thecrystals. This information cannot be obtained by X-ray diffractometry (XRD) that only producebroad diffraction peaks because it is not suitable for extremely small crystals.https://www.nims.go.jp/mana/research/highlights/vol38.htmlhttps://www.nims.go.jp/mana/research/highlights/index.htmlhttps://www.nims.go.jp/mana/research/highlights/vol40.html2022/04/04 10:06 Pair Distribution Function Analysis Offers New Insights into the Structure and Identity of Nanomaterials| MANAhttps://www.nims.go.jp/mana/research/highlights/vol39.html 2/3Tominaka is working with colleagues in Japan and Europe on the development of PDF analysis fornanomaterials research on two main topics. First, the analysis of the purity of nanomaterials. “Incertain materials, our PDF analysis shows large concentrations of phases of low symmetry orsmaller particle sizes,” says Tominaka. “The existence of mixtures of phases in nanomaterials isassociated with the formation of nanomaterials under kinetically controlled conditions.”Specific reports by Tominaka on this topic include the properties of reduced titanium oxidenanoparticles [1] and the observation of unique electrical conduction of mesoscopic cobaltphosphide—a mesoporous semimetallic conductor—due to the coexistence of Co2P phases foundby PDF analysis [2].The other area of research is exploiting the power of PDF analysis for identifying unknownstructures have been uncovered by using X-ray PDFs. “Certain materials are only stable asnanosized structures,” says Tominaka. “Such materials cannot be identified based on data frombulk materials.”Research on materials discovery using PDF includes new insights into heterojunctions made ofinert materials for electrocatalysts where gold was covered with a two-dimensional corrugatedcarbon−nitrogen structure [3]; the determination of the structure of two-dimensional boronhydride sheets which show potential for hydrogen storage [4]; and the discovery of disorderedcatalytic activity of titanate phase with TiO6 octahedral connectivity [5].“My research is ongoing and still in its youth,” says Tominaka. “There are still many issues toaddress including the development of algorisms for nanomaterials analysis.”Reference[1]“Topotactic reduction of oxide nanomaterials: unique structure and electronic properties ofreduced TiO2 nanoparticles”Satoshi Tominaka, et al.Journal : Materials Horizons 1, 106-110, (2014).DOI : 10.1039/C3MH00087G[2]“Mesoporous Semimetallic Conductors: Structural and Electronic Properties of Cobalt PhosphideSystems”Malay Pramanik,et al.Journal : Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 56, 1–6, (2017).DOI : 10.1002/anie.201707878[3]“Two-Dimensional Corrugated Porous Carbon‑, Nitrogen-Framework/Metal Heterojunction forEfficient Multielectron Transfer Processes with Controlled Kinetics”Ken Sakaushi,et al.Journal : ACS Nano 11, 1770−1779, (2017).DOI : 10.1021/acsnano.6b07711[4]“Formation and Characterization of Hydrogen Boride Sheets Derived from MgB2 by CationExchange”Hiroaki Nishino, et al.https://samurai.nims.go.jp/profiles/tominaka_satoshi?locale=enhttps://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2014/mh/c3mh00087g#!divAbstracthttps://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/anie.201707878https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.6b077112022/04/04 10:06 Pair Distribution Function Analysis Offers New Insights into the Structure and Identity of Nanomaterials| MANAhttps://www.nims.go.jp/mana/research/highlights/vol39.html 3/3Journal : J. Am. Chem. Soc. 139, 13761−1376, (2017).DOI : 10.1021/jacs.7b06153[5]“Noncrystalline Titanium Oxide Catalysts for Electrochemical Oxygen Reduction Reactions”Satoshi Tominaka, et al.Journal : ACS Omega 2, 5209−5214, (2017).DOI : 10.1021/acsomega.7b00811AffiliationsInternational Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (WPI-MANA), National Institute for MaterialsScience (NIMS), Namiki 1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, JapanContact informationInternational Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics(WPI-MANA)National Institute for Materials Science1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044 JapanPhone: +81-29-860-4710E-mail: mana-pr[AT]ml.nims.go.jphttps://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.7b06153https://samurai.nims.go.jp/profiles/tominaka_satoshi?locale=enhttps://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsomega.7b00811