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(Medical-NewsWire.com, September 01, 2014 ) San Francisco, CA -- For nearly 150 years Gibbs theory has been used extensively in predicting the equilibrium shape during crystal growth. However, recent research on platinum (Pt) nanocrystal growth has proven that this classical crystal growth theory breaks down at the nanoscale. The research article is published in the August 22 issue of Science (Vol. 345 no. 6199 pp. 916-919 DOI: 10.1126/science.1253149).
Research group led by Dr. Haimei Zheng, a staff scientist at U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (Materials Science Division), used a Gatan K2® IS high speed direct detection camera to reveal the growth process of Pt nanocubes from molecular precursors in a liquid environment in a transmission electron microscope (TEM).
“For years, predictions of the equilibrium shape of a nanocrystal have been based on the surface energy minimization proposal by Josiah Willard Gibbs in the 1870s to describe the equilibrium shape of a water droplet,” says Dr. Zheng, “For nanocrystals, the idea is that during crystal growth, high-energy facets will grow at a higher rate than low-energy facets and eventually disappear, resulting in a nanocrystal whose shape is configured to minimize surface energy.”
Contrary to the prediction by Gibbs theory it was found that the three lower index facets {100}, {110}, and {111} initially grow at similar rate until the {100} facets first ceased the growth. The {110} and {111} facets continue to grow until the {110} facet reaches its limit as defined by the two neighboring {100} facets. This leaves {111} to grow to fill the corners completing the shape of a perfect cube, when the growth completely stops. The low ligand mobility on {100} facet is believed to be responsible for its ceased growth.
This rapid atomic growth process was captured for the first time by the high speed K2 IS direct detection camera with a time resolution of 2.5 ms at 400 frames per second (fps). The K2 IS camera can also be configured to acquire images at a time resolution of 0.625 ms (1600 fps).
“Image detector has become the bottleneck for today's powerful electron microscopes. Solving challenging problems in material science requires specimen information with not only high spatial but also high temporal resolution”, said Dr. Ming Pan, Senior VP of Business Development at Gatan and co-author of the paper.
“K2 direct detection capabilities are enabling new investigations across a range of materials applications”, said Cory Czarnik, Product Manager for imaging products at Gatan and also a co-author. “We expect that many more scientific discoveries will be made with the K2 direct detection cameras in both low dose, beam sensitive materials as well as applications with high frame rates including 4D STEM.”
The K2 IS direct detection camera is optimized for both single particle structural biology and cryo-tomography, as well as high-speed dynamic and in-situ electron microscopy (EM). The uniquely back-thinned sensor is the most radiation-hardened sensor available today, with a lifetime greater than 5 billion electrons per pixel.
Contact: Jennifer McKie, Gatan, Inc. Tel: +1 (925) 224-7350. Email: jmckie@gatan.com.
About Gatan Inc.:Gatan, Inc. is the world's leading manufacturer of instrumentation and software used to enhance and extend the operation and performance of electron microscopes. Gatan's products, which are fully compatible with all brands of electron microscopes, cover the entire range of the scientific instrumentation from specimen preparation and manipulation to imaging and analysis. The Gatan brand name is recognized and respected throughout the worldwide scientific community and has been synonymous with high quality products and the industry's leading technology.
For more information about the complete product portfolio, visit www.gatan.com.
Gatan, Inc.
Gatan
9254630200
info@gatan.com
Source: EmailWire.Com 
Source: EmailWire.com
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