Real time imaging of two-dimensional iron oxide spherulite nanostructure formation

Wenjing Zheng, Matthew R. Hauwiller, Wen I. Liang, Colin Ophus, Peter Ercius, Emory M. Chan, Ying Hao Chu, Mark Asta, Xiwen Du, A. Paul Alivisatos, Haimei Zheng

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

The formation of complex hierarchical nanostructures has attracted a lot of attention from both the fundamental science and potential applications point of view. Spherulite structures with radial fibrillar branches have been found in various solids; however, their growth mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, we report real time imaging of the formation of two-dimensional (2D) iron oxide spherulite nanostructures in a liquid cell using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). By tracking the growth trajectories, we show the characteristics of the reaction front and growth kinetics. Our observations reveal that the tip of a growing branch splits as the width exceeds certain sizes (5.5–8.5 nm). The radius of a spherulite nanostructure increases linearly with time at the early stage, transitioning to nonlinear growth at the later stage. Furthermore, a thin layer of solid is accumulated at the tip and nanoparticles from secondary nucleation also appear at the growing front which later develop into fibrillar branches. The spherulite nanostructure is polycrystalline with the co-existence of ferrihydrite and Fe3O4 through-out the growth. A growth model is further established, which provides rational explanations on the linear growth at the early stage and the nonlinearity at the later stage of growth.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)2889-2893
Number of pages5
JournalNano Research
Volume12
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 19 2019
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2022-06-13
Acknowledgements: This project was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES), Materials Sciences and Engineering Division under Contract No. DE-AC02-05-CH11231 within the in-situ TEM (KC22ZH) program. Work at the Molecular Foundry was supported by the Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. We acknowledge Gatan Inc. for the advanced K2 IS camera and Dr. Ming Pan and Dr. Cory Czarnik for their help with part of experimental set up in this work. W. J. Z. acknowledges the support from Tianjin University Graduate School International Academic Exchange Fund. M. R. H. was funded by KAUST project under H. M. Z. at UC Berkeley.
This publication acknowledges KAUST support, but has no KAUST affiliated authors.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Materials Science
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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