Article abstract
Nature Materials 7, 308 - 313 (2008)
Published online: 9 March 2008 | doi:10.1038/nmat2132
Subject Categories: Nanoscale materials | Characterisation and analytical techniques
Coordination-dependent surface atomic contraction in nanocrystals revealed by coherent diffraction
W. J. Huang1,2, R. Sun1,2, J. Tao1,2, L. D. Menard2,3, R. G. Nuzzo2,3 & J. M. Zuo1,2
Abstract
Surface atoms have fewer interatomic bonds than those in the bulk that they often relax and reconstruct on extended two-dimensional surfaces. Far less is known about the surface structures of nanocrystals. Here, we show that coherent diffraction patterns recorded from individual nanocrystals are very sensitive to the atomic structure of nanocrystal surfaces. Nanocrystals of Au of 3–5 nm in diameter were studied by examining diffraction intensity oscillations around the Bragg peaks. Both results obtained from modelling the experimental data and molecular dynamics simulations strongly suggest inhomogeneous relaxations, involving large out-of-plane bond length contractions for the edge atoms (
0.2 Å); a significant contraction (0.13 Å) for {100} surface atoms; and a much smaller contraction (0.05 Å) for atoms in the middle of the {111} facets. These results denote a coordination/facet dependence that markedly differentiates the structural dynamics of nanocrystals from bulk crystalline surfaces.
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA
- Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA
- Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA
Correspondence to: J. Tao1,2 Present address: Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA
Correspondence to: J. M. Zuo1,2 e-mail: jianzuo@uiuc.edu
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