Locating the Atoms at the Hard-soft Interface of Gold Nanoparticles
Abstract
Surface structure affects the growth, shape and properties of nanoparticles. In wet chemical syntheses, metal additives and surfactants are used to modify surfaces and guide nanocrystal growth. To understand this process, it is critical to understand how the surface structure is modified. However, measuring the type and arrangement of atoms at hard-soft interfaces on nanoscale surfaces, especially in the presence of surfactants, is extremely challenging. Here, we determine the atomic structure of the hard-soft interface in a metallic nanoparticle by developing low-dose imaging conditions in four-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy that are preferentially sensitive to surface adatoms. By revealing experimentally the copper additives and bromide surfactant counterion at the surface of a gold nanocuboid and quantifying their interatomic distances, our direct, low-dose imaging method provides atomic-level understanding of chemically sophisticated nanomaterial surface structures. These measurements of the atomic structure of the hard-soft interface provide the information necessary to understand and quantify surface chemistries and energies and their pivotal role in nanocrystal growth.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2503.10059,
title = {Locating the Atoms at the Hard-soft Interface of Gold Nanoparticles},
author = {Weilun Li and Bryan D. Esser and Wenming Tong and Anchal Yadav and Colin Ophus and Changlin Zheng and Scott D. Findlay and Timothy Petersen and Alison M. Funston and Joanne Etheridge},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.10059},
year = {2025}
}