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Published on: September 13, 2021
3D characterization of heat-induced morphological changes of Au nanostars by fast in situ electron tomography
Hans Vanrompay1, Eva Bladt1, Wiebke Albrecht1
1Electron Microscopy for Materials Science (EMAT), University of Antwerp, Groenenborgerlaan 171, 2020 Antwerp, Belgium. sara.bals@uantwerpen.be.
Abstract:
A thorough understanding of the thermal stability and potential reshaping of anisotropic gold nanostars is required for various potential applications. Combination of a tomographic heating holder with fast tilt series acquisition has been used to monitor temperature-induced morphological changes of Au nanostars. The outcome of our 3D investigations can be used as an input for boundary element method simulations, enabling us to investigate the influence of reshaping on the nanostars' plasmonic properties. Our work leads to a better understanding of the mechanism behind thermal reshaping. In addition, the approach presented here is generic and can hence be applied to a wide variety of nanoparticles made of different materials and with arbitrary morphology.
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