Professor Sun Litao and his group in School of Electronic Science and Engineering published their research paper named ��iquid-like pseudoelasticity of sub-10-nm crystalline silver particles��in Nature Materials(Online) on October 12th, and selected as paper on cover page. Southeast university served the first complete unit, and our doctoral candidate Sun Jun and young teacher named He Longbing were joint first authors. Professor Sun Litao served as corresponding author.
In nanotechnology, small-volume metals with large surface area are used as electrodes, catalysts, interconnects and antennae. Their shape stability at room temperature has, however, been questioned. Using in situ high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, they found that Ag nanoparticles could be deformed like a liquid droplet but remained highly crystalline in the interior, with no sign of dislocation activity during deformation. Surface-diffusion-mediated pseudoelastic deformation was evident at room temperature, which could be driven by either an external force or capillary-energy minimization. Atomistic simulations confirmed that such highly unusual Coble pseudoelasticity could indeed happen for sub-10-nm Ag particles at room temperature and at timescales from seconds to months.
Link to the article: http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nmat4105.html
