Nanocompression of 20 nm Silver Nanoparticles: In situ Aberration‐Corrected TEM and Atomistic Simulations

Carlton, Christopher Earl; Zorro, Fátima; Caturla, Maria José; Aoki, Toshihiro; Zhu, Yimei; Amodeo, Jonathan; Ferreira, Paulo Jorge

doi:10.1002/smll.202405292

Nanocompression of 20 nm Silver Nanoparticles: In situ Aberration‐Corrected TEM and Atomistic Simulations

Journal Article · Sun Dec 15 00:00:00 EST 2024 · Small

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202405292· OSTI ID:2566988

Carlton, Christopher Earl ^[1]; Zorro, Fátima ^[2]; Caturla, Maria José ^[3]; Aoki, Toshihiro ^[4]; Zhu, Yimei ^[5]; Amodeo, Jonathan ^[6]; ^[7]

Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States); Samsung Semiconductor, Austin, TX (United States)
International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL), Braga (Portugal); Inst. of Superior Tecnico (IST), Lisbon (Portugal)
Univ. of Alicante (Spain)
Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States)
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Aix-Marseille Univ., Marseille (France); Univ. of Toulon, Marseille (France); Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Marseille (France). Institut Matériaux Microélectronique Nanosciences de Provence (IM2NP)
Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States); International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL), Braga (Portugal); Inst. of Superior Tecnico (IST), Lisbon (Portugal)

Single‐crystalline nanoparticles play an increasingly important role in a wide variety of fields including pharmaceuticals, advanced materials, catalysts for fuel cells, energy materials, as well as environmental detection and monitoring. Yet, the deformation mechanisms of very small nanoparticles are still poorly understood, in particular the role played by single dislocations and their interaction with surfaces. Here, in this work, silver nanoparticles with particularly small dimensions (≈20 nanometers in diameter) are compressed in situ in an aberration‐corrected transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. During compression, the emergence of both dislocations and nanotwins are observed. However, these defects prove to be unstable and disappear upon removal of the indenter. Atomistic simulations confirm the role played by image stresses associated with the nearby surfaces and the reduction in dislocation line length as it approaches the free surface, thereby supporting the experimental observations. These results provide justification for the frequent observation of the absence of dislocations in nanoparticles of a few nanometers in size during in situ experiments, even after significant deformation. This phenomenon contributes to the self‐healing of samples through dislocation ejection toward the surfaces.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR); Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT); Generalitat Valenciana; Spanish Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division (MSE)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0012704

OSTI ID:: 2566988

Report Number(s):: BNL--228187-2025-JAAM

Journal Information:: Small, Journal Name: Small Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 21; ISSN 1613-6810; ISSN 1613-6829

Publisher:: WileyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (62)

Nucleation-Controlled Plasticity of Metallic Nanowires and Nanoparticles Mordehai, Dan; David, Omer; Kositski, Roman Advanced Materials, Vol. 30, Issue 41 https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201706710	journal	July 2018
On Homogeneous Nucleation of Dislocation Loops in Nanocrystalline Materials Estrin, Yuri; Lemiale, Vincent; O’donnell, Robert Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A, Vol. 42, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11661-010-0536-4	journal	November 2010
Computational Analysis Methods in Atomistic Modeling of Crystals Stukowski, Alexander JOM, Vol. 66, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-013-0827-5	journal	December 2013
Superhard silicon nanospheres Gerberich, W. W.; Mook, W. M.; Perrey, C. R. Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, Vol. 51, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-5096(03)00018-8	journal	June 2003
Atomic scale structure of sputtered metal multilayers Zhou, X. W.; Wadley, H. N. G.; Johnson, R. A. Acta Materialia, Vol. 49, Issue 19 https://doi.org/10.1016/S1359-6454(01)00287-7	journal	November 2001
In-situ TEM tensile testing of DC magnetron sputtered and pulsed laser deposited Ni thin films Hugo, R. C.; Kung, H.; Weertman, J. R. Acta Materialia, Vol. 51, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1016/S1359-6454(02)00599-2	journal	April 2003
In situ TEM straining of single crystal Au films on polyimide: Change of deformation mechanisms at the nanoscale Oh, S. H.; Legros, M.; Kiener, D. Acta Materialia, Vol. 55, Issue 16 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2007.06.015	journal	September 2007
Achieving the ideal strength in annealed molybdenum nanopillars Lowry, M. B.; Kiener, D.; LeBlanc, M. M. Acta Materialia, Vol. 58, Issue 15 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2010.05.052	journal	September 2010
Nanoindentation size effect in single-crystal nanoparticles and thin films: A comparative experimental and simulation study Mordehai, Dan; Kazakevich, Michael; Srolovitz, David J. Acta Materialia, Vol. 59, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2010.12.027	journal	April 2011
In situ investigation of MgO nanocube deformation at room temperature Issa, I.; Amodeo, J.; Réthoré, J. Acta Materialia, Vol. 86 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2014.12.001	journal	March 2015
Depinning-controlled plastic deformation during nanoindentation of BCC iron thin films and nanoparticles Kositski, Roman; Mordehai, Dan Acta Materialia, Vol. 90 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2015.03.010	journal	May 2015
Mechanisms of plasticity in near-theoretical strength sub-100 nm Si nanocubes Wagner, Andrew J.; Hintsala, Eric D.; Kumar, Prashant Acta Materialia, Vol. 100 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2015.08.029	journal	November 2015
Uniaxial compression of silicon nanoparticles: An atomistic study on the shape and size effects Kilymis, D.; Gérard, C.; Amodeo, J. Acta Materialia, Vol. 158 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2018.07.063	journal	October 2018
Atomsk: A tool for manipulating and converting atomic data files Hirel, Pierre Computer Physics Communications, Vol. 197 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpc.2015.07.012	journal	December 2015
LAMMPS - a flexible simulation tool for particle-based materials modeling at the atomic, meso, and continuum scales Thompson, Aidan P.; Aktulga, H. Metin; Berger, Richard Computer Physics Communications, Vol. 271 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpc.2021.108171	journal	February 2022
Multiscale modelling of indentation in FCC metals: From atomic to continuum Chang, Hyung-Jun; Fivel, Marc; Rodney, David Comptes Rendus Physique, Vol. 11, Issue 3-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crhy.2010.07.007	journal	April 2010
Reverse plasticity in single crystal silicon nanospheres Gerberich, William W.; Mook, William M.; Cordill, Megan J. International Journal of Plasticity, Vol. 21, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijplas.2005.03.001	journal	December 2005
A molecular dynamics study on the orientation, size, and dislocation confinement effects on the plastic deformation of Al nanopillars Xu, S.; Guo, Y. F.; Ngan, A. H. W. International Journal of Plasticity, Vol. 43 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijplas.2012.11.002	journal	April 2013
A first-principles measure for the twinnability of FCC metals Tadmor, E. Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, Vol. 52, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmps.2004.05.002	journal	November 2004
Mechanical properties and dislocation nucleation in nanocrystals with blunt edges Amodeo, Jonathan; Lizoul, Khalid Materials & Design, Vol. 135 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2017.09.009	journal	December 2017
Reaching near-theoretical strength by achieving quasi-homogenous surface dislocation nucleation in MgO particles Chen, Sijing; Liu, Fei; Liu, Boyu Materials Today, Vol. 55 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mattod.2022.04.007	journal	May 2022
Jet re-heating and its thermal model prediction at RHIC Sun, X. Physics Letters B, Vol. 659, Issue 1-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2007.10.066	journal	January 2008
Plasticity in small-sized metallic systems: Intrinsic versus extrinsic size effect Greer, Julia R.; De Hosson, Jeff Th. M. Progress in Materials Science, Vol. 56, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmatsci.2011.01.005	journal	August 2011
Small size strength dependence on dislocation nucleation Nowak, J. D.; Beaber, A. R.; Ugurlu, O. Scripta Materialia, Vol. 62, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scriptamat.2010.01.026	journal	June 2010
Load versus displacement-controlled nanocompression: Insights from atomistic simulations Iteney, Hugo; Cornelius, Thomas W.; Thomas, Olivier Scripta Materialia, Vol. 226 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scriptamat.2022.115245	journal	March 2023
SimulaTEM: Multislice simulations for general objects Gómez-Rodríguez, A.; Beltrán-del-Río, L. M.; Herrera-Becerra, R. Ultramicroscopy, Vol. 110, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ultramic.2009.09.010	journal	January 2010
Stress-Induced Structural Transformations in Au Nanocrystals Parakh, Abhinav; Lee, Sangryun; Kiani, Mehrdad T. Nano Letters, Vol. 20, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c03371	journal	October 2020
Investigating the Role of Strain toward the Oxygen Reduction Activity on Model Thin Film Pt Catalysts Temmel, Sandra E.; Fabbri, Emiliana; Pergolesi, Daniele ACS Catalysis, Vol. 6, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.6b01836	journal	October 2016
When More Is Less: Plastic Weakening of Single Crystalline Ag Nanoparticles by the Polycrystalline Au Shell Sharma, Amit; Amodeo, Jonathan; Gazit, Nimrod ACS Nano, Vol. 15, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.1c02976	journal	August 2021
Onset of Plasticity in Gold Nanopillar Compression Rabkin, Eugen; Srolovitz, David J. Nano Letters, Vol. 7, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1021/nl0622350	journal	January 2007
Discrete plasticity in sub-10-nm-sized gold crystals Zheng, He; Cao, Ajing; Weinberger, Christopher R. Nature Communications, Vol. 1, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms1149	journal	December 2010
A new view of the onset of plasticity during the nanoindentation of aluminium Minor, Andrew M.; Syed Asif, S. A.; Shan, Zhiwei Nature Materials, Vol. 5, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1714	journal	August 2006
Liquid-like pseudoelasticity of sub-10-nm crystalline silver particles Sun, Jun; He, Longbing; Lo, Yu-Chieh Nature Materials, Vol. 13, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4105	journal	October 2014
In situ atomic-scale observation of twinning-dominated deformation in nanoscale body-centred cubic tungsten Wang, Jiangwei; Zeng, Zhi; Weinberger, Christopher R. Nature Materials, Vol. 14, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4228	journal	March 2015
Influence of atomic site-specific strain on catalytic activity of supported nanoparticles Nilsson Pingel, Torben; Jørgensen, Mikkel; Yankovich, Andrew B. Nature Communications, Vol. 9, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05055-1	journal	July 2018
Nickel nanoparticles set a new record of strength Sharma, A.; Hickman, J.; Gazit, N. Nature Communications, Vol. 9, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06575-6	journal	October 2018
In-situ observation of the initiation of plasticity by nucleation of prismatic dislocation loops Lee, Subin; Vaid, Aviral; Im, Jiseong Nature Communications, Vol. 11, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15775-y	journal	May 2020
Atomic-scale observation of nucleation- and growth-controlled deformation twinning in body-centered cubic nanocrystals Zhong, Li; Zhang, Yin; Wang, Xiang Nature Communications, Vol. 15, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-44837-8	journal	January 2024
Attosecond electron pulse trains and quantum state reconstruction in ultrafast transmission electron microscopy Priebe, Katharina E.; Rathje, Christopher; Yalunin, Sergey V. Nature Photonics, Vol. 11, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-017-0045-8	journal	November 2017
Diffraction and microscopy with attosecond electron pulse trains Morimoto, Yuya; Baum, Peter Nature Physics, Vol. 14, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-017-0007-6	journal	November 2017
Deformation mechanisms in silicon nanoparticles Zhang, Ning; Deng, Qian; Hong, Yu Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 109, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3552985	journal	March 2011
Surface dislocation nucleation controlled deformation of Au nanowires Roos, B.; Kapelle, B.; Richter, G. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 20 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4902313	journal	November 2014
On the nucleation of partial dislocations in nanoparticles Carlton, C. E.; Rabenberg, L.; Ferreira, P. J. Philosophical Magazine Letters, Vol. 88, Issue 9-10 https://doi.org/10.1080/09500830802307641	journal	September 2008
From dislocation nucleation to dislocation multiplication in ceramic nanoparticle Issa, Inas; Joly-Pottuz, Lucile; Amodeo, Jonathan Materials Research Letters, Vol. 9, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1080/21663831.2021.1894253	journal	March 2021
Mechanical properties of nanoparticles: basics and applications Guo, Dan; Xie, Guoxin; Luo, Jianbin Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, Vol. 47, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1088/0022-3727/47/1/013001	journal	December 2013
An embedded-atom potential for the Cu–Ag system Williams, P. L.; Mishin, Y.; Hamilton, J. C. Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering, Vol. 14, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1088/0965-0393/14/5/002	journal	May 2006
Robust structural identification via polyhedral template matching Larsen, Peter Mahler; Schmidt, Søren; Schiøtz, Jakob Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering, Vol. 24, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1088/0965-0393/24/5/055007	journal	May 2016
Mechanical deformation of atomic-scale metallic contacts: Structure and mechanisms Sørensen, Mads R.; Brandbyge, Mads; Jacobsen, Karsten W. Physical Review B, Vol. 57, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.57.3283	journal	February 1998
Moving dislocations in disordered alloys: Connecting continuum and discrete models with atomistic simulations Marian, J.; Caro, A. Physical Review B, Vol. 74, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.74.024113	journal	July 2006
Vacancy clustering and prismatic dislocation loop formation in aluminum Gavini, Vikram; Bhattacharya, Kaushik; Ortiz, Michael Physical Review B, Vol. 76, Issue 18 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.76.180101	journal	November 2007
Generation and Characterization of Attosecond Microbunched Electron Pulse Trains via Dielectric Laser Acceleration Schönenberger, Norbert; Mittelbach, Anna; Yousefi, Peyman Physical Review Letters, Vol. 123, Issue 26 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.264803	journal	December 2019
Nucleation of Dislocations in 3.9 nm Nanocrystals at High Pressure Parakh, Abhinav; Lee, Sangryun; Harkins, K. Anika Physical Review Letters, Vol. 124, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.106104	journal	March 2020
Atomic Process of Point Contact in Gold Studied by Time-Resolved High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy Kizuka, Tokushi Physical Review Letters, Vol. 81, Issue 20 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.81.4448	journal	November 1998
A Maximum in the Strength of Nanocrystalline Copper Schiotz, J. Science, Vol. 301, Issue 5638 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1086636	journal	September 2003
Dislocation Loops with Stacking Fault in Quenched Aluminum Yoshida, Sho; Kiritani, Michio; Shimomura, Yoshiharu Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, Vol. 18, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1143/JPSJ.18.175	journal	February 1963
Plasticity in Confined Dimensions Kraft, Oliver; Gruber, Patric A.; Mönig, Reiner Annual Review of Materials Research, Vol. 40, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-matsci-082908-145409	journal	June 2010
Effect of Calendering LiFePO ₄ Electrodes van Bommel, A.; Divigalpitiya, Ranjith Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Vol. 159, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1149/2.029211jes	journal	January 2012
Nano based drug delivery systems: recent developments and future prospects Patra, Jayanta Kumar; Das, Gitishree; Fraceto, Leonardo Fernandes Journal of Nanobiotechnology, Vol. 16, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12951-018-0392-8	journal	September 2018
Self-diffusion and impurity diffusion of fee metals using the five-frequency model and the Embedded Atom Method Adams, J. B.; Foiles, S. M.; Wolfer, W. G. Journal of Materials Research, Vol. 4, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1557/JMR.1989.0102	journal	February 1989
WulffPack: A Python package for Wulff constructions Rahm, J.; Erhart, Paul Journal of Open Source Software, Vol. 5, Issue 45 https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.01944	journal	January 2020
Scale effects of nanomechanical properties and deformation behavior of Au nanoparticle and thin film using depth sensing nanoindentation Maharaj, Dave; Bhushan, Bharat Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology, Vol. 5 https://doi.org/10.3762/bjnano.5.94	journal	June 2014
Modeling the mechanical properties of nanoparticles: a review Amodeo, Jonathan; Pizzagalli, Laurent Comptes Rendus. Physique, Vol. 22, Issue S3 https://doi.org/10.5802/crphys.70	journal	January 2021

Similar Records

Platinum nanoparticle compression: Combining in situ TEM and atomistic modeling

Journal Article · Sun Jan 02 19:00:00 EST 2022 · Applied Physics Letters · OSTI ID:1890478

Nanoindentation of silver-relations between hardness and dislocation structure

Journal Article · Sat Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 1988 · J. Mat. Res.; (United States) · OSTI ID:6361714

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
Aberration-corrected TEM
Dislocations
Molecular Dynamics
Nanomechanics
Nanoparticles

Nanocompression of 20 nm Silver Nanoparticles: In situ Aberration‐Corrected TEM and Atomistic Simulations

Citation Formats

References (62)

Similar Records

Related Subjects