In situ imaging reveals polycrystalline structure and discrete annealing in nanocrystal superlattices

Paper Title:

In situ coherent X-ray scattering reveals polycrystalline structure and discrete annealing events in strongly-coupled nanocrystal superlattices

Published on:

11 January 2024

Primary Category:

Materials Science

Paper Authors:

Matthew J. Hurley,

Christian P. N. Tanner,

Joshua Portner,

James K. Utterback,

Igor Coropceanu,

Garth J. Williams,

Avishek Das,

Andrei Fluerasu,

Yanwen Sun,

Sanghoon Song,

Leo M. Hamerlynck,

Alexander H. Miller,

Priyadarshini Bhattacharyya,

Dmitri V. Talapin,

Naomi S. Ginsberg,

Samuel W. Teitelbaum

Bullets

Key Details

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Superlattices quickly nucleate then coalesce into polycrystalline structures with grain boundaries

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Grain boundaries can store strain over time as superlattices continue to evolve

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Shear avalanches at boundaries serve to relieve strain, increasing crystallinity

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Coherent X-ray methods enable direct imaging of solution-phase nanostructures

Explore the topics in this paper

crystal structure

nanocrystal ordering

spectroscopic techniques

superlattice dynamics

x-ray imaging

AI generated summary

In situ imaging reveals polycrystalline structure and discrete annealing in nanocrystal superlattices

Researchers combined coherent X-ray imaging and spectroscopy techniques to visualize the real-space structure and temporal fluctuations of self-assembled gold nanocrystal superlattices in solution. They found the superlattices were polycrystalline, with multiple nucleation sites, and underwent further ordering via shear motions at grain boundaries over time.