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Structural properties of silver nanorods with fivefold symmetry
Hanyuan Chen1, Yan Gao, Hongchun Yu
1Beijing Laboratory of Electron Microscopy, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, China.
Abstract:
The microstructural features of silver nanorods with the average length of 50 microm and diameters of around 100 nm have been investigated by means of SEM, X-ray diffraction, and transmission-electron microscopy (TEM). Silver nanorods in general have a pentagonal shape with a remarkable fivefold symmetry as revealed in cross-section observations. The fivefold axis, i.e. the growth direction, normally goes along the [110]-zone axis direction of the basic fcc Ag-structure. The twinning relationships and relevant twin boundaries among the five subunits in the pentagonal nanorod have been examined by high-resolution TEM and selected-area electron diffraction. Defects and stacking faults in this kind of nanorods have been briefly analyzed.
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