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Title: Effects of catalyst droplets on wire growth and the resulting branched structures during VLS growth

Abstract

Vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) method is vastly employed to grow hierarchical structures with unique properties. However, key questions remain, such as what controls the branched structures and what the roles of catalyst droplet size are during the growth. Here, an in-depth understanding of the kinetics of the nucleation, growth, and subsequent coalescence processes of Bi liquid catalyst droplets is provided by direct observation of PbSe branched wire growth in an environmental transmission electron microscope. This brings a kinetic control of the branch density by varying the parameters, such as temperature. In addition, the dependence of wire growth rate on the catalyst droplet size is revealed, i.e., the smaller the catalyst size the larger the wire growth rate, unlike the wire growth controlled by Gibbs-Thomson effect, possibly due to different mass transport pathways and atomic surface diffusion. These results extend the fundamental understanding of the VLS growth mechanism of branched structures and benefit the structure design of hierarchical materials with tailored properties.

Authors:
 [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
  2. Rice Univ., Houston, TX (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI Identifier:
1631315
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1606610
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-148368
Journal ID: ISSN 2040-3364; NANOHL
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC05-76RL01830; KC0203020:67037; SC0019111
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Nanoscale
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 12; Journal Issue: 14; Journal ID: ISSN 2040-3364
Publisher:
Royal Society of Chemistry
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE

Citation Formats

Song, Miao, Zhang, Youtian, Chun, Jaehun, Hu, Shenyang, Tang, Ming, and Li, Dongsheng. Effects of catalyst droplets on wire growth and the resulting branched structures during VLS growth. United States: N. p., 2020. Web. doi:10.1039/C9NR10695B.
Song, Miao, Zhang, Youtian, Chun, Jaehun, Hu, Shenyang, Tang, Ming, & Li, Dongsheng. Effects of catalyst droplets on wire growth and the resulting branched structures during VLS growth. United States. https://doi.org/10.1039/C9NR10695B
Song, Miao, Zhang, Youtian, Chun, Jaehun, Hu, Shenyang, Tang, Ming, and Li, Dongsheng. Thu . "Effects of catalyst droplets on wire growth and the resulting branched structures during VLS growth". United States. https://doi.org/10.1039/C9NR10695B. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1631315.
@article{osti_1631315,
title = {Effects of catalyst droplets on wire growth and the resulting branched structures during VLS growth},
author = {Song, Miao and Zhang, Youtian and Chun, Jaehun and Hu, Shenyang and Tang, Ming and Li, Dongsheng},
abstractNote = {Vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) method is vastly employed to grow hierarchical structures with unique properties. However, key questions remain, such as what controls the branched structures and what the roles of catalyst droplet size are during the growth. Here, an in-depth understanding of the kinetics of the nucleation, growth, and subsequent coalescence processes of Bi liquid catalyst droplets is provided by direct observation of PbSe branched wire growth in an environmental transmission electron microscope. This brings a kinetic control of the branch density by varying the parameters, such as temperature. In addition, the dependence of wire growth rate on the catalyst droplet size is revealed, i.e., the smaller the catalyst size the larger the wire growth rate, unlike the wire growth controlled by Gibbs-Thomson effect, possibly due to different mass transport pathways and atomic surface diffusion. These results extend the fundamental understanding of the VLS growth mechanism of branched structures and benefit the structure design of hierarchical materials with tailored properties.},
doi = {10.1039/C9NR10695B},
journal = {Nanoscale},
number = 14,
volume = 12,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Mar 19 00:00:00 EDT 2020},
month = {Thu Mar 19 00:00:00 EDT 2020}
}

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