DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Space- and time-resolved small angle X-ray scattering to probe assembly of silver nanocrystal superlattices

Journal Article · · Nature Communications

Abstract The structure of nanocrystal superlattices has been extensively studied and well documented, however, their assembly process is poorly understood. In this work, we demonstrate an in situ space- and time-resolved small angle X-ray scattering measurement that we use to probe the assembly of silver nanocrystal superlattices driven by electric fields. The electric field creates a nanocrystal flux to the surface, providing a systematic means to vary the nanocrystal concentration near the electrode and thereby to initiate nucleation and growth of superlattices in several minutes. Using this approach, we measure the space- and time-resolved concentration and polydispersity gradients during deposition and show how they affect the superlattice constant and degree of order. We find that the field induces a size-selection effect that can reduce the polydispersity near the substrate by 21% leading to better quality crystals and resulting in field strength-dependent superlattice lattice constants.

Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
OSTI ID:
1619802
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 9; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United Kingdom
Language:
English

References (52)

Ultrathin Quantum Dot Display Integrated with Wearable Electronics journal August 2017
Electrophoretic separation of gold nanoparticles according to bifunctional molecules-induced charge and size: Nanoanalysis journal February 2013
Capillary electrophoretic separation of nanoparticles journal January 2011
Small Angle X-ray Scattering for Nanoparticle Research journal April 2016
Self-Assembly of Colloidal Nanocrystals: From Intricate Structures to Functional Materials journal August 2016
Cooling Dodecanethiol-Capped 2 nm Diameter Gold Nanocrystal Superlattices below Room Temperature Induces a Reversible Order–Disorder Structure Transition journal November 2016
Size-Dependent Photoluminescence Efficiency of Silicon Nanocrystal Quantum Dots journal October 2017
Role of Halides in the Ordered Structure Transitions of Heated Gold Nanocrystal Superlattices journal June 2015
Reversible, Tunable, Electric-Field Driven Assembly of Silver Nanocrystal Superlattices journal May 2017
Modifying Thermal Transport in Colloidal Nanocrystal Solids with Surface Chemistry journal October 2015
Constructing Functional Mesostructured Materials from Colloidal Nanocrystal Building Blocks journal August 2013
Three-Dimensional Nanocrystal Superlattices Grown in Nanoliter Microfluidic Plugs journal June 2011
Reversible Kirkwood–Alder Transition Observed in Pt 3 Cu 2 Nanoctahedron Assemblies under Controlled Solvent Annealing/Drying Conditions journal August 2012
Comparing the Structural Stability of PbS Nanocrystals Assembled in fcc and bcc Superlattice Allotropes journal June 2012
Resolving the Growth of 3D Colloidal Nanoparticle Superlattices by Real-Time Small-Angle X-ray Scattering journal November 2012
Comparison of Structural Behavior of Nanocrystals in Randomly Packed Films and Long-Range Ordered Superlattices by Time-Resolved Small Angle X-ray Scattering journal November 2009
Regulating Multiple Variables To Understand the Nucleation and Growth and Transformation of PbS Nanocrystal Superlattices journal October 2017
Mechanism of the Electrophoretic Deposition of CdSe Nanocrystal Films:  Influence of the Nanocrystal Surface and Charge journal December 2007
Assembly and Self-Organization of Silver Nanocrystal Superlattices:  Ordered “Soft Spheres” journal October 1998
Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance Spectroscopy of Single Silver Nanocubes journal October 2005
Breakdown of the Continuum Stokes−Einstein Relation for Nanoparticle Diffusion journal May 2007
Probing in situ the Nucleation and Growth of Gold Nanoparticles by Small-Angle X-ray Scattering journal June 2007
Separation of Nanoparticles by Gel Electrophoresis According to Size and Shape journal September 2007
Ordered Structure Rearrangements in Heated Gold Nanocrystal Superlattices journal October 2013
Shape-Anisotropy Driven Symmetry Transformations in Nanocrystal Superlattice Polymorphs journal February 2011
Air-Stable, Nanostructured Electronic and Plasmonic Materials from Solution-Processable, Silver Nanocrystal Building Blocks journal February 2014
Structural diversity in binary nanoparticle superlattices journal January 2006
Binary nanocrystal superlattice membranes self-assembled at the liquid–air interface journal July 2010
A colloidal quantum dot spectrometer journal July 2015
Wu et al. reply journal August 2017
Structural diversity in binary superlattices self-assembled from polymer-grafted nanocrystals journal December 2015
Observation of solid–solid transitions in 3D crystals of colloidal superballs journal February 2017
Superlattices assembled through shape-induced directional binding journal April 2015
Charge transport and localization in atomically coherent quantum dot solids journal February 2016
Kinetics of the self-assembly of nanocrystal superlattices measured by real-time in situ X-ray scattering journal March 2016
In situ study of the formation mechanism of two-dimensional superlattices from PbSe nanocrystals journal September 2016
Fast, sensitive and spectrally tuneable colloidal-quantum-dot photodetectors journal November 2008
Band-like transport, high electron mobility and high photoconductivity in all-inorganic nanocrystal arrays journal April 2011
Charge transport in strongly coupled quantum dot solids journal November 2015
Emergence of colloidal quantum-dot light-emitting technologies journal December 2012
Nanocrystal superlattices that exhibit improved order on heating: an example of inverse melting? journal January 2015
X-ray scattering as a liquid and solid phase probe of ordering within sub-monolayers of iron oxide nanoparticles fabricated by electrophoretic deposition journal January 2014
Tolerance to structural disorder and tunable mechanical behavior in self-assembled superlattices of polymer-grafted nanocrystals journal February 2017
A SAXS/WAXS/GISAXS Beamline with Multilayer Monochromator journal October 2010
Electrical transport in narrow-miniband semiconductor superlattices journal May 1991
Electronic structure of atomically coherent square semiconductor superlattices with dimensionality below two journal September 2013
Gold Nanoparticle Superlattice Crystallization Probed In Situ journal March 2008
Dynamical Self-Assembly of Nanocrystal Superlattices during Colloidal Droplet Evaporation by in situ Small Angle X-Ray Scattering journal September 2004
Irena : tool suite for modeling and analysis of small-angle scattering journal February 2009
Nanoparticle Superlattice Engineering with DNA journal October 2011
Self-Organization of CdSe Nanocrystallites into Three-Dimensional Quantum Dot Superlattices journal November 1995
Building devices from colloidal quantum dots journal August 2016