Exploring the Crystalline Structure of Gold Mesocrystals Using X-ray Diffraction
Aleksandra Chumakova,
Felizitas Kirner,
Andrei Chumakov,
Stephan V. Roth,
Alexeï Bosak,
Elena V. Sturm
Affiliations
Aleksandra Chumakova
Outstation at Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ), Institute of Crystallography (IfK), RWTH Aachen University, Lichtenbergstrasse 1, 85747 Garching, Germany
Felizitas Kirner
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Section of Crystallography, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU), Theresienstr. 41C, 80333 Munich, Germany
European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, 71 Avenue des Martyrs, 38000 Grenoble, France
Elena V. Sturm
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Section of Crystallography, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU), Theresienstr. 41C, 80333 Munich, Germany
Mesocrystals are a class of nanostructured material where individual nanocrystals are arranged in a distinct crystallographic orientation. The multiple-length-scale order in such materials plays an essential role in the emergent physical and chemical phenomena. Our work studies the structure of a faceted mesocrystal composed of polystyrene-functionalized single crystalline gold nanoparticles using complementary ultrasmall- and wide-angle X-ray scattering (USAXS and WAXS) with electron microscopy. The results of the data analysis shed some light on the details of the microscopic structure of mesocrystals and their structuration principle.
