Atomic Scale Growth Dynamics of Nanocrystals within Carbon Nanotubes

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• 作者：Jamie H. Warner ; Simon R. Plant ; Neil P. Young ; Kyriakos Porfyrakis ; Angus I. Kirkland ; G. Andrew D. Briggs
• 刊名：ACS Nano
• 出版年：2011
• 出版时间：February 22, 2011
• 年：2011
• 卷：5
• 期：2
• 页码：1410-1417
• 全文大小：1204K
• 年卷期：0
• ISSN：1936-086X

文摘

The confined interior region of carbon nanotubes has proved to be an effective “nano-test-tube” to conduct chemical reactions in a restricted volume. It also benefits from being thin and relatively transparent to electrons, enabling structural characterization using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. This permits real-time monitoring of chemical reactions with atomic resolution. Here, we have studied the dynamics of single Pr atoms released from Pr₂@C₇₂ metallofullerenes. We show that the Pr atoms form small nanoclusters that subsequently coalesce to ordered, stable nanocrystals within the confines of a carbon nanotube. This process has been tracked in situ with atomic-resolution using low-voltage aberration-corrected high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. We reveal that nanocrystal formation within a nanotube does not generally occur by the addition of single atoms to one pre-existing cluster but rather through aggregation of several smaller clusters. These results provide some of the deepest insights into the dynamics of single-atom behavior in the solid state.