High Density Static Charges Governed Surface Activation for Long-Range Motion and Subsequent Growth of Au Nanocrystals
Guoxin Chen,
Changjin Guo,
Yao Cheng,
Huanming Lu,
Junfeng Cui,
Wanbiao Hu,
Rongrong Jiang,
Nan Jiang
Affiliations
Guoxin Chen
Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Related Technologies, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Protective Technologies, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology & Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201, China
Changjin Guo
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, China
Yao Cheng
Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fuzhou 350002, China
Huanming Lu
Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Related Technologies, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Protective Technologies, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology & Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201, China
Junfeng Cui
Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Related Technologies, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Protective Technologies, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology & Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201, China
Wanbiao Hu
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, China
Rongrong Jiang
Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Related Technologies, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Protective Technologies, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology & Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201, China
Nan Jiang
Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Related Technologies, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Protective Technologies, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology & Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201, China
How a heavily charged metal nanocrystal, and further a dual-nanocrystals system behavior with continuous electron charging? This refers to the electric dynamics in charged particles as well as the crystal growth for real metal particles, but it is still opening in experimental observations and interpretations. To this end, we performed an in-situ electron-beam irradiation study using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) on the Au nanocrystals that freely stand on the nitride boron nanotube (BNNT). Au nanocrystalline particles with sizes of 2–4 nm were prepared by a well-controlled sputtering method to stand on the BNNT surface without chemical bonding interactions. Au nanoparticles presented the surface atomic disorder, diffusion phenomena with continuous electron-beam irradiation, and further, the long-range motion that contains mainly the three stages: charging, activation, and adjacence, which are followed by final crystal growth. Firstly, the growth process undergoes the lattice diffusion and subsequently the surface-dominated diffusion mechanism. These abnormal phenomena and observations, which are fundamentally distinct from classic cases and previous reports, are mainly due to the overcharging of Au nanoparticle that produces a surface activation state in terms of high-energy plasma. This work therefore brings about new observations for both a single and dual-nanocrystals system, as well as new insights in understanding the resulting dynamics behaviors.
