Unexpected high stiffness of Ag and Au nanoparticles.
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2008;
100:045502. [PMID:
18352295 DOI:
10.1103/physrevlett.100.045502]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2007] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
We studied the compressibility of silver (10 nm) and gold (30 nm) nanoparticles, n-Ag and n-Au, suspended in a methanol-ethanol mixture by x-ray diffraction (XRD) with synchrotron radiation at pressures up to 30 GPa. Unexpectedly for that size, the nanoparticles show a significantly higher stiffness than the corresponding bulk materials. The bulk modulus of n-Au, K(0)=290(8) GPa, shows an increase of ca. 60% and is in the order of W or Ir. The structural characterization of both kinds of nanoparticles by XRD and high-resolution electron microscopy identified polysynthetic domain twinning and lamellar defects as the main origin for the strong decrease in compressibility.
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