Abstract
A broad general interest in the process of affecting the energetic deposition of flying nanoparticles has prompted a new opportunity to consider the medium-energy region in which the nanoparticles maintain their integrity and must respond to the energetic shock caused by collisions. We herein report our experimental results on the structural transition of the carbon nanoparticles induced by such energetic collisions. The beam energy was varied from 0 keV to 30 keV for a nanoparticle with over 5000 carbon atoms. Electron energy loss spectroscopy, X-ray photoemission spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy were carried out on the samples using a series of beam energies. These tests revealed that some graphitic sheets were formed at the higher beam energy while the sp3 ratio was unexpectedly higher for a medium beam energy.
Highlights
This may allow reconstruction within the nanoparticles at the atomic level, providing an opportunity to generate the structural transition of the nanoparticles by energetic collision with a medium kinetic energy
We report here on the experimental evidence of the occurrence of such structural transitions
The energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) spectra show that the diamond-like bonding dominates in the nanoparticles with kinetic energies in the range of 0–15 keV (∼
Summary
The process of collision of flying nanoparticles at a solid surface is of broad physical interest.[1,2,3,4] The kind of change that takes place in these nanoparticles when they collide with a solid surface energetically has been considered in different cases, as specified by the average kinetic energy per atom in the nanoparticles.[1,2,3,4] The average kinetic energies (Ek) are comparable with the average atomistic binding energies because the inner bonding is the critical difference between a nanoparticle and a loosely-packed group of the same atoms.[5,6] The nanoparticles land softly with no obvious structural change when their kinetic energy is much lower than the binding energies (Ek < 0.1 eV/atom). Molecular dynamical simulations indicate that the nanoparticles are crushed completely when their kinetic energies are much greater than the binding energies (Ek > 10 eV/atom).[1] A study of this type provides a good opportunity to prepare atomically smooth films, as demonstrated experimentally.[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11] There is still no clear consensus on how nanoparticles behave when they collide at a medium kinetic energy comparable to the binding energy (Ek ∼ 1 eV/atom), some theoretical approaches have been proposed.[12,13,14] It is reasonable to assume that the nanoparticles will not be crushed by the energetic collision, but instead be pressed against the interatomic potential inside the deposited nanoparticles This may allow reconstruction within the nanoparticles at the atomic level, providing an opportunity to generate the structural transition of the nanoparticles by energetic collision with a medium kinetic energy. We report here on the experimental evidence of the occurrence of such structural transitions
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