Directional Migration and Rapid Coalescence of Au Nanoparticles on Anisotropic ReS2

• Published in: Nano letters Vol. 23; no. 4; pp. 1211 - 1218
• Main Authors: Cao, Yadi, Sun, Yinghui, Yang, Huanhuan, Zhou, Liang, Huang, Qianming, Qi, Jiajie, Guan, Pengfei, Liu, Kaihui, Wang, Rongming
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Chemical Society 22.02.2023
• Subjects: metal−semiconductor interaction; rhenium disulfide; surface diffusion; in situ TEM
• ISSN: 1530-6984; 1530-6992
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c04278

Interfacial atomic configuration and its evolution play critical roles in the structural stability and functionality of mixed zero-dimensional (0D) metal nanoparticles (NPs) and two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors. In situ observation of the interface evolution at atomic resolution is a vital method. Herein, the directional migration and structural evolution of Au NPs on anisotropic ReS2 were investigated in situ by aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy. Statistically, the migration of Au NPs with diameters below 3 nm on ReS2 takes priority with greater probability along the b-axis direction. Density functional theory calculations suggest that the lower diffusion energy barrier enables the directional migration. The coalescence kinetics of Au NPs is quantitatively described by the relation of neck radius (r) and time (t), expressed as r 2 = K t . Our work provides an atomic-resolved dynamic analysis method to study the interfacial structural evolution of metal/2D materials, which is essential to the study of the stability of nanodevices based on mixed-dimensional nanomaterials.