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Title: Shape-controlled synthesis and in situ characterisation of anisotropic Au nanomaterials using liquid cell transmission electron microscopy

Abstract

Understanding the mechanisms behind crystal nucleation and growth is a fundamental requirement for the design and production of bespoke nanomaterials with controlled sizes and morphologies. In this work, we select gold (Au) nanoparticles as the model system for our study due to their representative applications in biology, electronics and optoelectronics. We investigate the radiation-induced in situ growth of gold (Au) particles using liquid cell transmission electron microscopy (LCTEM) and study the growth kinetics of non-spherical Au structures. Under controlled electron fluence, liquid flow rate and Au3+ ion supply, we show the favoured diffusion-limited growth of multi-twinned nascent Au seed particles into branched structures when using thin liquid cells (100 nm and 250 nm) in LCTEM, whereas faceted structures (e.g., spheres, rods, and prisms) formed when using a 1 μm thick liquid cell. In addition, we observed that anisotropic Au growth could be modulated by Au-binding amyloid fibrils, which we ascribe to their capability to regulate Au3+ ion diffusion and mass transfer in solution. We anticipate that this study will provide new perspectives on the shape-controlled synthesis of anisotropic metallic nanomaterials using LCTEM.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2];  [3]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [3];  [3]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Imperial College, London (United Kingdom)
  2. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  3. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Molecular Foundry
  4. Univ. of York, Heslington (United Kingdom)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Molecular Foundry; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); Taiwan Strategic Alliance Scholarship; Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC); Lawrence Fellowship; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division
OSTI Identifier:
1561948
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1562738; OSTI ID: 1692266
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-805912
Journal ID: ISSN 2040-3364; NANOHL; ark:/13030/qt5qz910p9
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-05CH11231; AC52-07NA27344; EP/K020641/1
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Nanoscale
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 11; Journal Issue: 36; Journal ID: ISSN 2040-3364
Publisher:
Royal Society of Chemistry
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; 77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY; 37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY; Liquid cell TEM; in situ growth; diffusion-limited growth; branched structures; amyloid fibrils.

Citation Formats

Wang, Shih-Ting, Lin, Yiyang, Nielsen, Michael H., Song, Cheng Yu, Thomas, Michael R., Spicer, Christopher D., Kröger, Roland, Ercius, Peter, Aloni, Shaul, and Stevens, Molly M. Shape-controlled synthesis and in situ characterisation of anisotropic Au nanomaterials using liquid cell transmission electron microscopy. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.1039/c9nr01474h.
Wang, Shih-Ting, Lin, Yiyang, Nielsen, Michael H., Song, Cheng Yu, Thomas, Michael R., Spicer, Christopher D., Kröger, Roland, Ercius, Peter, Aloni, Shaul, & Stevens, Molly M. Shape-controlled synthesis and in situ characterisation of anisotropic Au nanomaterials using liquid cell transmission electron microscopy. United States. https://doi.org/10.1039/c9nr01474h
Wang, Shih-Ting, Lin, Yiyang, Nielsen, Michael H., Song, Cheng Yu, Thomas, Michael R., Spicer, Christopher D., Kröger, Roland, Ercius, Peter, Aloni, Shaul, and Stevens, Molly M. 2019. "Shape-controlled synthesis and in situ characterisation of anisotropic Au nanomaterials using liquid cell transmission electron microscopy". United States. https://doi.org/10.1039/c9nr01474h. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1561948.
@article{osti_1561948,
title = {Shape-controlled synthesis and in situ characterisation of anisotropic Au nanomaterials using liquid cell transmission electron microscopy},
author = {Wang, Shih-Ting and Lin, Yiyang and Nielsen, Michael H. and Song, Cheng Yu and Thomas, Michael R. and Spicer, Christopher D. and Kröger, Roland and Ercius, Peter and Aloni, Shaul and Stevens, Molly M.},
abstractNote = {Understanding the mechanisms behind crystal nucleation and growth is a fundamental requirement for the design and production of bespoke nanomaterials with controlled sizes and morphologies. In this work, we select gold (Au) nanoparticles as the model system for our study due to their representative applications in biology, electronics and optoelectronics. We investigate the radiation-induced in situ growth of gold (Au) particles using liquid cell transmission electron microscopy (LCTEM) and study the growth kinetics of non-spherical Au structures. Under controlled electron fluence, liquid flow rate and Au3+ ion supply, we show the favoured diffusion-limited growth of multi-twinned nascent Au seed particles into branched structures when using thin liquid cells (100 nm and 250 nm) in LCTEM, whereas faceted structures (e.g., spheres, rods, and prisms) formed when using a 1 μm thick liquid cell. In addition, we observed that anisotropic Au growth could be modulated by Au-binding amyloid fibrils, which we ascribe to their capability to regulate Au3+ ion diffusion and mass transfer in solution. We anticipate that this study will provide new perspectives on the shape-controlled synthesis of anisotropic metallic nanomaterials using LCTEM.},
doi = {10.1039/c9nr01474h},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1561948}, journal = {Nanoscale},
issn = {2040-3364},
number = 36,
volume = 11,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Aug 30 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Fri Aug 30 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}

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Cited by: 7 works
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