Microscope Observation of Morphology of Colloidally Dispersed Niobate Nanosheets Combined with Optical Trapping

Although inorganic nanosheets prepared by exfoliation (delamination) of layered crystals have attracted great attention as 2D nanoparticles, in situ real space observations of exfoliated nanosheets in the colloidally dispersed state have not been conducted. In the present study, colloidally dispersed inorganic nanosheets prepared by exfoliation of layered niobate are directly observed with bright-field optical microscopy, which detects large nanosheets with lateral length larger than several micrometers. The observed nanosheets are not strictly flat but rounded, undulated, or folded in many cases. Optical trapping of nanosheets by laser radiation pressure has clarified their uneven cross-sectional shapes. Their morphology is retained under the relation between Brownian motion and optical trapping.