RESUMO
Many energy storage materials undergo large volume changes during charging and discharging. The resulting stresses often lead to defect formation in the bulk, but less so in nanosized systems. Here, we capture in real time the mechanism of one such transformation-the hydrogenation of single-crystalline palladium nanocubes from 15 to 80 nm-to better understand the reason for this durability. First, using environmental scanning transmission electron microscopy, we monitor the hydrogen absorption process in real time with 3 nm resolution. Then, using dark-field imaging, we structurally examine the reaction intermediates with 1 nm resolution. The reaction proceeds through nucleation and growth of the new phase in corners of the nanocubes. As the hydrogenated phase propagates across the particles, portions of the lattice misorient by 1.5%, diminishing crystal quality. Once transformed, all the particles explored return to a pristine state. The nanoparticles' ability to remove crystallographic imperfections renders them more durable than their bulk counterparts.
RESUMO
We show that controlling the introduction time and the amount of sulphur (S) vapour relative to the WO3 precursor during the chemical vapour deposition (CVD) growth of WS2 is critical to achieving large crystal domains on the surface of silicon wafers with a 300 nm oxide layer. We use a two furnace system that enables the S precursor to be separately heated from the WO3 precursor and growth substrate. Accurate control of the S introduction time enabled the formation of triangular WS2 domains with edges up to 370 µm which are visible to the naked eye. The WS2 domains exhibit room-temperature photoluminescence with a peak value around â¼635 nm and a full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of â¼12 nm. Selected area electron diffraction from different regions of the triangular WS2 domains showed that they are single crystal structures.
