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Liquid-cell Transmission Electron Microscopy for Tracking Self-assembly of Nanoparticles
Published on: October 16, 2017
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Hierarchical nanoparticle ensembles synthesized by liquid phase directed self-assembly
J D Fowlkes1, N A Roberts, Y Wu
1Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory , Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37381, United States.
Nano Letters
|December 31, 2013
Summary
Researchers controlled liquid metal fragmentation into ordered nanoparticles. They used surface perturbations to achieve hierarchical fragmentation and micrometer scale control over nanoparticle radius.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Fluid Dynamics
- Nanotechnology
Background:
- The Rayleigh-Plateau instability typically causes chaotic breakup of liquid filaments.
- Achieving controlled fragmentation into ordered mesoscale particles is challenging.
- Previous methods were limited to larger scales or less ordered structures.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate controlled fragmentation of liquid metal filaments.
- To achieve ordered, mesoscale particle ensembles from liquid metal.
- To demonstrate precise control over nanoparticle size.
Main Methods:
- Supporting a liquid metal filament on a dielectric substrate.
- Imposing an undulated surface perturbation on the filament.
- Utilizing a micrometer scale switch for radius control.
Main Results:
- The imposed perturbation selected a single unstable mode, overriding multimodal instability.
- Hierarchical spatial fragmentation of the filament into particles was achieved.
- Nanoparticle radius control was successfully demonstrated at the micrometer scale.
Conclusions:
- Surface perturbations can direct liquid metal filament fragmentation into ordered structures.
- This method enables the creation of mesoscale particle ensembles with controlled size.
- The findings offer a new pathway for fabricating nanoparticles with tunable radii.
