TEM study of annealed Pt nanostructures grown by electron beam-induced deposition

In this paper we report on the microstructural characterization of Pt nanostructures fabricated by electron beam-induced deposition in a dual beam system and subsequently annealed in furnace. The as-deposited nanostructures are made of a mixture of nanocrystalline Pt and amorphous carbon. We show by transmission electron microscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy that the annealing in presence of oxygen at 550 °C for 30 min is able to remove the amorphous carbon from the nanostructure, leaving polycrystalline Pt grains.