Abstract
Binary nanocolloidal crystals (BNCCs) made of two different nanoparticles are a promising new class of advanced functional materials with synergetic and collective properties. These materials have been shown to exhibit excellent structural diversity and a wide range of different stoichiometries. In this study, BNCCs with an ico-AB13 structure were prepared as inorganic bulk materials by simple solvent evaporation of silica nanocolloidal aqueous solutions. Systematic analysis of Fourier diffractograms of high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) images shows the reflection conditions of the space group Fm3̅c without any ambiguities, which is indicative of the ico-AB13 structure. Simulated HRTEM images based on the ideal ico-AB13 structure were also calculated under the kinematical scattering approximation. These images showed the characteristic fine structure of the ico-AB13 structure along the high-symmetry axes. The agreement between the observed and simulated HRTEM images indicates the validity of the ideal ico-AB13 model structure. This result shows that HRTEM together with a quantitative image simulation is a versatile method for the characterization of the BNCCs at the nanoscale and can be routinely applied for any nanocolloidal crystals, even for complex structures.
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