@article{Li2018, 
author = {Chang Li and Xin Chen and Haiyang Liu and Jiali Fang and Xiaoqin Zhou},
title = {In-situ liquid-cell TEM study of radial flow-guided motion of octahedral Au nanoparticles and nanoparticle clusters},
year = {2018},
journal = {Nano Research},
volume = {11},
number = {9},
pages = {4697-4707},
keywords = {in situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM), nanoparticles, nanoassembling, nanoscale fluids, trapping force},
url = {https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.1007/s12274-018-2052-6},
doi = {10.1007/s12274-018-2052-6},
abstract = {The dynamic behavior of octahedral gold nanoparticles (NPs) and nanoparticle clusters (NPCs) in aqueous solution is studied by in-situ liquid-cell transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The octahedral Au NPs/NPCs show preferential orientations in the liquid cell, due to the interaction with the SiNx window. The Au NPs show long-range reversible hopping and three-dimensional (3D) rotational motions in the liquid environment. At the same time, the Au NPCs and NPs perform slow stick-slip and stick-roll motions, respectively, with a centripetal trend. The centripetal motions were explained by a liquid evaporation-induced radial flow model, in which the NPCs/NPs trajectories are controlled by Stokes forces and surface friction by the silicon nitride window. The calculated radius-dependent force (Fc) on the NPCs/NPs shows a semi-linear correlation with the distance r between the NPCs/NPs and the center of mass, accompanied with stochastic fluctuations, in agreement with the model predictions. This work thus demonstrates the effectiveness of in situ liquid-cell TEM for the in-depth understanding of complicated liquid flow and force interactions in nanomaterials.}
}