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Research Article

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

Wenjing Zheng1,2Matthew R. Hauwiller2,3Wen-I Liang2,4Colin Ophus5Peter Ercius5Emory M. Chan5Ying-Hao Chu4Mark Asta2,6Xiwen Du1( )A. Paul Alivisatos2,3,7Haimei Zheng2,6( )
Institute of New-Energy MaterialsSchool of Materials Science and EngineeringTianjin UniversityTianjin300350China
Materials Sciences DivisionLawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryBerkeleyCA94720USA
Department of ChemistryUniversity of CaliforniaBerkeleyBerkeleyCA94720USA
Department of Materials Science and Engineering"National Chiao Tung University"Hsinchu30010Taiwan, China
The Molecular FoundryLawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryBerkeleyCA94720USA
Department of Materials Science and EngineeringUniversity of CaliforniaBerkeleyBerkeleyCA94720USA
Kavli Energy NanoScience InstituteUniversity of California-Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryBerkeleyCA94720USA
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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.

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Nano Research
Pages 2889-2893
Cite this article:
Zheng W, Hauwiller MR, Liang W-I, et al. Real time imaging of two-dimensional iron oxide spherulite nanostructure formation. Nano Research, 2019, 12(11): 2889-2893. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-019-2531-4
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Received: 12 August 2019
Revised: 16 September 2019
Accepted: 27 September 2019
Published: 19 October 2019
© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019
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