Role of Kinetics and Thermodynamics in Controlling the Crystal Structure of Nickel Nanoparticles Formed on Reduced Graphene Oxide: Implications for Energy Storage and Conversion Applications

Abstract

Ultrafast heating has emerged recently to speed up the synthesis processes of nanoparticles and control their morphology. However, it is not clear how the heating rate affects the formation of metal nanoparticles, particularly those formed on substrates. Here, we explored the formation of nickel (Ni) nanoparticles on graphene oxide (GO) substrates under slow (20 °C/min) and ultrafast (103 °C/s) heating rates. The experiments were performed in situ on heating microchip devices using an aberration-corrected transmission electron microscope. Interestingly, the GO structure was the most effective in controlling the stability of nanoparticles when ultrafast heating was employed, leading to a hexagonally close-packed Ni phase (hcp-Ni) because of less lattice mismatch with the graphitic substrate. On the contrary, fcc-Ni nanoparticles formed under a slow heating process where no strong correlation with the GO crystal structure was observed. Additionally, ultrafast heating resulted in smaller-size nanoparticles which could be ascribed to rapid reduction, nucleation rate, and higher diffusion barrier of hcp-Ni crystals on rGO. Nevertheless, the stability of the crystal structure of the nickel nanoparticles remains unaffected by their size. These results indicate the crucial role of the substrate on crystal structure during the nonequilibrium processing of materials and the competing effects of thermodynamics versus kinetics in creating novel phases of materials for energy storage and conversion applications.