In situ microscopy study reveals collision dynamics in immiscible gold and rhodium nanoparticles, indicating rotational freedom dictates interface quality in bimetallic heterostructures.
Key Points
Investigate how lattice mismatch and thermodynamic miscibility govern collision dynamics and interfacial phase boundaries between immiscible gold and rhodium nanoparticles.
Tracked dynamic nanoparticle collisions in real time using in situ transmission electron microscopy.
Simulated collision dynamics, interface energetics, and lattice strain profiles using molecular dynamics.
Isolated pairwise collisions drove rotational alignment along (111), (100), or (110) facets, forming lattice-coherent, defect-free interfaces driven by interfacial energy minimization.
Molecular dynamics confirmed that coherent gold-rhodium interfaces possess significantly lower energy and strain than noncoherent interfaces.
Multi-nanoparticle collisions imposed spatial constraints that suppressed rotational alignment, trapping noncoherent heterostructures with high interfacial strain and defects.