In situ investigations of particle-mediated crystal growth

6^th International Conference and Exhibition on Materials Science and Engineering

September 12-14, 2016 Atlanta, USA

Dongsheng Li, Jaehun Chun, Kevin M Rosso and James J De Yoreo

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, USA

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Material Sci Eng

Abstract :

Assembly of molecular clusters and nanoparticles in solution is now recognized as an important mechanism of crystal growth in many materials, yet the assembly process and attachment mechanisms are poorly understood. To achieve this understanding, we are investigating nucleation and assembly of iron and titanium oxides using in situ and ex situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and the forces that drive oriented attachment between nanocrystals and the factors that control them via AFM-based dynamic force spectroscopy (DFS). Our hypothesis is the attachment is due to reduction of surface energy and the driving forces that bring the particles together are a mix dipole-dipole interactions, van der Waals forces, and Coulombic interactions. Therefore they can be controlled via pH, ionic strength (IS), and ionic speciation. In situ TEM shows that in the iron oxide system, primary particles interact with one another through translational and rotational diffusion until a near-perfect lattice match is obtained either with true crystallographic alignment or across a twin plane. Oriented attachment then occurs through a sudden jump-to-contact. Analysis of the acceleration during attachment indicates that it is driven by electrostatic attraction. Ex situ TEM analysis shows that the TiO2 nanowire branching occurs through attachment of anatase nanoparticles to rutile wires on a specific crystallographic plane for which the anatase-to-rutile transformation leads to creation of a twin plane. Initial DFS measurements of the forces between (001) crystal basal planes of mica, and (001) planes of TiO2 show that the forces have strong relationship to pH, IS, and crystal orientation.

Biography :

Dongsheng Li has completed her PhD from Penn State University. Her PhD research focused on “Nanomaterials synthesis and characterization”. She was a Project Scientist, developing methods with in situ TEM and AFM to investigate particle nucleation and growth, and particle mediated crystal growth at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She is currently a staff Scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. She has published over 30 papers in respected journals and has been serving as a Reviewer for journals such as Journal of Physics; Nanotechnology; and Journal of the American Ceramic Society, etc.

Email: Dongsheng.Li2@pnnl.gov