International audienceColloidal single-crystals with submillimeter size (colloidal crystal) are built by self-assembly of gold nanoparticles with nearly similar size (ca.5nm) but different nanocrystallinities. The external shape of the gold nanoparticles was characterized by electron microscopy and related to their nanocrystallinity. A synchrotron-based experiment is used to collect X-ray diffraction patterns from individual single-crystals over the wide q-range relevant to both inter-atomic and inter-particles periodicities. This makes possible a detailed reconstruction of the reciprocal space including diffuse scattering. X-ray diffraction demonstrates that colloidal crystals made of single-crystal nanoparticles belong to the body-centered cubic system while face-centered cubic single crystals are observed in case of self-assembly by polycrystalline particles; a remarkable feature is the preferential orientation of the symmetry axes of the single-crystal nanoparticles along those of the colloidal crystal; on the contrary polycrystalline nanoparticles display random orientation. These results show the importance of the nanocrystallinity for the packing behavior
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.