Abstract
Controlling the amorphous or crystalline state of multinary Cr-Mn-Fe-Co-Ni alloy nanoparticles with sizes in the range between ~1.7 nm and ~4.8 nm is achieved using three processing routes. Direct current sputtering from an alloy target in the ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide leads to amorphous nanoparticles as observed by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. Crystalline nanoparticles can be achieved in situ in a transmission electron microscope by exposure to an electron beam, ex situ by heating in vacuum, or directly during synthesis by using a high-power impulse magnetron sputtering process. Growth of the nanoparticles with respect to the amorphous particles was observed. Furthermore, the crystal structure can be manipulated by the processing conditions. For example, a body-centered cubic structure is formed during in situ electron beam crystallization while longer ex situ annealing induces a face-centered cubic structure.
Highlights
Multinary metal nanoparticles (NPs) have attracted increasing interest over the past years for a multitude of applications in optics [1,2], electronics [3], catalysis [4] or other industrial fields [5] due to their unique and tailorable properties [6,7,8]
Electron beam irradiation of the NPs for more than 40 min leads to a structural transformation and formation of a crystalline state
As a long-range order has been generated, lattice fringes can be observed and reflection spots are present in the Fast Fourier transforms (FFT) (Figure 1c)
Summary
Multinary metal nanoparticles (NPs) have attracted increasing interest over the past years for a multitude of applications in optics [1,2], electronics [3], catalysis [4] or other industrial fields [5] due to their unique and tailorable properties [6,7,8]. Physical vapor deposition (PVD), as a top-down technique, allow to prepare NPs by sputtering the elements into ionic liquids (IL) [12]. Synthesis of metal NPs via sputtering in ionic liquids to produce single element NPs [16,17] or alloy NPs [18,19] and techniques for transfer and accumulation [20,21] have been reported [22]. Co-sputtering from elemental or alloy targets in ILs has almost no limits in the combination of different constituents in multinary NPs and provides a high control in the elemental composition [11,22,23,24]. The formation process in or on the IL itself is not fully understood [13,25]
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