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Updated: Jun 19, 2026
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Methods of Ex Situ and In Situ Investigations of Structural Transformations: The Case of Crystallization of Metallic Glasses
Published on: June 7, 2018
Orientation-Dependent Thermal Morphological Evolution of α-Fe Nanopillars
Longqi Bai1,2, Longchao Huang1,3, Yan Ma4
1Center for Advancing Materials Performance from the Nanoscale (CAMP-Nano), State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, People's Republic of China.
Nano Letters
|June 18, 2026
Summary
Crystallographic orientation impacts how single-crystal nanostructures change shape at high temperatures. Higher axial indices lead to faster shrinking and rounding due to surface energy and atom movement dynamics.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Nanotechnology
- Surface Science
Background:
- One-dimensional nanostructures are often single-crystalline.
- Their thermal morphological evolution is crucial for high-temperature applications but poorly understood.
- Crystallographic orientation's role in this evolution is a key knowledge gap.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how crystallographic orientation influences the thermal shape evolution of single-crystalline nanostructures.
- To elucidate the underlying thermodynamic and kinetic mechanisms governing this process.
- To provide insights for designing thermally stable nanostructures.
Main Methods:
- Observation of shape evolution in single-crystalline alpha-iron (α-Fe) nanopillars.
- Experiments conducted near 0.48 of the melting temperature.
- Analysis of surface energy anisotropy and adatom diffusion kinetics.
Main Results:
- Increasing axial index of nanopillars correlates with enhanced spheroidization and accelerated shortening.
- Low-index pillars exhibit slower evolution due to stabilized facets and limited adatom generation.
- High-index pillars show faster evolution due to geometric constraints promoting high-index facets and increased adatom formation.
Conclusions:
- Axial orientation is a critical parameter controlling the thermal evolution of 1D nanostructures.
- Surface-energy anisotropy and adatom kinetics are coupled factors driving shape changes.
- Findings offer design principles for engineering thermally robust nanoscale systems.
