The Origins of Socketing of Metallic Particles on Oxide Surfaces
a Colorado School of Mines, United States
b Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, Universitätsstraße, 150, Bochum, Germany
Proceedings of MATSUS Fall 2026 Conference (MATSUSFall26)
C2 Exsolution in Sustainable Catalyst Design
Palma, Spain, 2026 October 26th - 30th
Organizers: Moritz Kindelmann and Moritz L. Weber
Invited Speaker, Ivar Reimanis, presentation 412
Publication date: 22nd July 2026
Publication date: 22nd July 2026
Socketing refers to the embedment of a metal particle on an oxide surface, and it is known to be correlated with decreased particle coarsening. The phenomenon is the result of a thermodynamic balance of interface and surface energies and is not directly linked with the mechanism of particle formation. Examples are discussed for nickel in two oxide systems, yttria stabilized zirconia and yttrium doped barium zirconate (BZY). For BZY, socketing is shown to occur for exsolved particles and for those formed by dewetting a film of nickel. However, exsolved particles form with a highly specific interface orientation relationship, compared with particles formed from dewetting, likely imparting superior coarsening resistance.
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