Deformation Twinning of a Silver Nanocrystal under High Pressure

Abstract

Within a high-pressure environment, crystal deformation is controlled by complex processes such as dislocation motion, twinning, and phase transitions, which change materials' microscopic morphology and alter their properties. Understanding a crystal's response to external stress provides a unique opportunity for rational tailoring of its functionalities. It is very challenging to track the strain evolution and physical deformation from a single nanoscale crystal under high-pressure stress. Here, we report an in situ three-dimensional mapping of morphology and strain evolutions in a single-crystal silver nanocube within a high-pressure environment using the Bragg Coherent Diffractive Imaging (CDI) method. We observed a continuous lattice distortion, followed by a deformation twining process at a constant pressure. The ability to visualize stress-introduced deformation of nanocrystals with high spatial resolution and prominent strain sensitivity provides an important route for interpreting and engineering novel properties of nanomaterials.

Deterministic Bragg Coherent Diffraction Imaging

“…For example, they were successfully employed to investigate dynamic nanoscale processes 9 , to visualize in three dimensions, the entire network of dislocations present within an individual calcite crystal during repeated growth and dissolution cycles 10 , to report an in situ three-dimensional mapping of morphology and strain evolutions in a single-crystal nanocube within a high-pressure environment 11 , to understand the surface related properties of shaped nanocrystals 12 , to determine the stacking fault density in highly defective nanowires 13 , to study non-uniform strain relaxation in strained layer nano-objects 14 and to indicate the presence of surface adsorbates on facetted nanocrystals 15 . This list of applications is indicative but not exhaustive.…”

Size‐Dependent Cytotoxicity of Thiolated Silver Nanoparticles Rapidly Probed by using Differential Pulse Voltammetry

“…Our work advances one step toward monitoring and understanding the cytotoxicity of thiolated silver nanoparticles.Silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs, including the ultrasmall nanoparticles, so-called nanoclusters, [1,2] and their larger counterparts, nanocrystals [3,4] )h ave been increasingly used for practical applicationsa nd research purposes, [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] owing to their relatively low cost (compared with Au, Pt, etc.) How to rapidly probe their cytotoxicity?, ands of orth.…”

“…It is found that the cytotoxicity of silver nanoparticles is size dependent in the investigated size range, that is, with increasing size, the cytotoxicityi ncreases. Our work advances one step toward monitoring and understanding the cytotoxicity of thiolated silver nanoparticles.Silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs, including the ultrasmall nanoparticles, so-called nanoclusters, [1,2] and their larger counterparts, nanocrystals [3,4] )h ave been increasingly used for practical applicationsa nd research purposes, [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] owing to their relatively low cost (compared with Au, Pt, etc.) andi ntriguing physicochemicalp roperties (enhanced Ramans cattering, [17,18] bright fluorescence, [19,20] antimicrobial property, [21][22][23] etc.).…”

Performance evaluation of Bragg coherent diffraction imaging

“…The complete strain tensor field can be obtained by measuring projection components on multiple non-coplanar scattering vectors [5]. This unique capability to access displacement field in nanocrystals finds wide applications, especially in investigating morphology and displacement evolutions under varying external conditions, such as chemically derived stress [6][7][8], temperature introduced strain [9], dislocation propagation during crystal growth [10,11], laser pulse induced lattice dynamics [12,13], radiation damage on protein crystals [14,15], static pressure driven strain [16,17], lattice defects during battery charging [18][19][20], as well as ion-implantation-induced strains [21]. Bragg CDI has also been further developed to integrate with lateral scans for enlarged field of view [22][23][24][25][26][27][28].…”