Ultrathin Gold Nanowires with the Polytetrahedral Structure of Bulk Manganese

Journal Article · Mon Sep 10 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · ACS Nano

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.8b05036· OSTI ID:1478118

Vargas, Jorge A. ^[1]; Petkov, Valeri  ^[1]; Nouh, El Said A. ^[2]; Ramamoorthy, Raj Kumar ^[2]; Lacroix, Lise-Marie ^[2]; Poteau, Romuald  ^[2]; Viau, Guillaume  ^[2]; Lecante, Pierre ^[3]; Arenal, Raul  ^[4]

---

1. Central Michigan Univ., Mount Pleasant, MI (United States)
2. Univ. de Toulouse (France)
3. France Centre d’Elaboration de Matériaux et d’Etudes Structurales, Taulouse (France)
4. Univ. Zaragoza (Spain); ARAID Foundation, Zaragoza (Spain)

Despite the intensive interest in thin gold nanowires for a variety of technologically important applications, key details of the mechanism of their formation and atomic-scale structure remain unknown. In this work we synthesize highly uniform, very long, and ultrathin gold nanowires in a liquid-phase environment and study their nucleation and growth using in situ high-energy synchrotron X-ray diffraction. By controlling the type of solvents, reducing agents, and gold precursor concentration, it is shown that the nucleation and growth of gold nanowires involve the emergence and self-assembly of transient linear gold complexes, respectively. In sharp contrast with the face-centered-cubic bulk gold, the evolved nanowires are found to possess a tetrahedrally close packed structure incorporating distorted icosahedra and larger size coordination polyhedra of the type observed with the room-temperature phase of bulk manganese. We relate the complexes to synergistic effects between the selected precursor and reducing agents that become appreciable over a narrow range of their molar ratios. We attribute the unusual structural state of gold nanowires to geometrical frustration effects arising from the conflicting tendencies of assemblies of metal atoms to evolve toward attaining high atomic packing density while keeping the atomic-level stresses low, ultimately favoring the growth of cylindrical nanowires with a well-defined diameter and atomically smooth surface. Our work provides a roadmap for comprehensive characterization and, hence, better understanding of 1D metallic nanostructures with an unusual atomic arrangement and may have important implications for their synthesis and performance in practical applications.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); French Institute in Cairo; Science and Technology Fund (STDF); Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA) of Toulouse; Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation of Spain (MINECO); HPCs CALcul en MIdi-Pyrénées (CALMIP-EOS); Grand Equipement National de Calcul Intensif (GENCITGCC)
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0006877; AC02-06CH11357; MAT2016-79776-P; P0611; 0810168
• OSTI ID: 1478118
• Journal Information: ACS Nano, Vol. 12, Issue 9; ISSN 1936-0851
• Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: ENGLISH

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
1D nanomaterials
synthesis
liquid phase
Au nanowires
in situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction
3D atomic structure