Approaches and challenges in whole-nanoparticle refinements from neutron total-scattering data

This study considers critical data reduction steps and data analysis approaches required to determine explicitly the atomic arrangements in nanoparticles from time-of-flight neutron total scattering. A practical procedure is described for removing parasitic backgrounds caused by the incoherent scattering of hydrogen inevitably present in most nanoparticle samples and normalizing the recovered coherent scattering intensities onto an absolute scale. A model-free analysis is presented of a pair-distribution function derived from total scattering that can be used to determine thermal expansion coefficients and particle sizes directly from experimental data without knowledge of the material's structure. Finally, atomistic whole-nanoparticle refinements of yttrium-doped ceria nano­particles from neutron total-scattering data are demonstrated using the reverse Monte Carlo method implemented in the RMCProfile software. These results reveal a strong dependence of the cation–oxygen and oxygen–oxygen distances on the coordination numbers, which leads to gradients of these distances near the particle surface. The details are dependent on the surface coverage by ligands and adsorbates and on the structure of grain boundaries in nanocrystalline agglomerates. The refined models confirm the expectations of more substantial disorder at particle surfaces, with a distorted surface layer extending over several coordination shells. The results highlight the feasibility of whole-nanoparticle refinements from neutron data, calling for further development of data reduction and analysis procedures.