Nanoscale cold welding of glass

• Published in: Matter Vol. 7; no. 12; pp. 4390 - 4397
• Main Authors: Guo, Yunna, Cui, Hantao, Jia, Peng, Ye, Zhangran, Deng, Lei, Li, Hui, Guo, Baiyu, Zhang, Xuedong, Huang, Jie, Su, Yong, Huang, Jianyu, Wen, Bin, Lu, Yang, Zhang, Liqiang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 04.12.2024
• Subjects: additive manufacturing; amorphous; cold welding; controllability; electron beam irradiation; glass; Nanoscale; silica; surface modification; ultrahigh-resolution; Nanoscale; MAP 1: Discovery; glass; additive manufacturing; amorphous; electron beam irradiation; ultrahigh-resolution; controllability; silica; surface modification; cold welding
• ISSN: 2590-2385; 2590-2385
• DOI: 10.1016/j.matt.2024.09.004

Bottom-up assembly and joining of silica nanoparticles to form complicated geometries up to three-dimensional (3D) glass structures are attractive for nanoscale optical, optoelectronics, etc. Most existing silica 3D printing techniques can only achieve submicron-level precision due to the optical limit of vat photopolymerization, which presents critical challenges for sub-100 nm printing. In this context, we introduce an electron-beam-assisted cold welding technique for nanoscale glass that is capable of achieving precision at the tens-of-nanometers scale. This method enables the direct fusion of two amorphous silica nanospheres within a few seconds while keeping the diameter smaller than 100 nm. Meanwhile, the strength, composition, and structure of the as-welded junctions appear the same as those of the pristine silica. Our approach would potentially allow ultra-high-resolution 3D bottom-up assembly and printing of silica nanostructures with ultimate resolution subject to the nanoparticle size only, which offers a new approach for additive manufacturing of nanoscale glass devices. [Display omitted] •Cold welding is achieved for silica glass at nanoscale resolution•Welding process can be controlled in situ through adjusting the gas environment•Welding quality is high enough for building high-resolution glass 3D architectures Nanoscale cold welding was previously discovered in metals, but there are debates about its applicability to glass or ceramic materials. Achieving “The Broken Mirror Restored” is always interesting but a great challenge. Here, through in situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM), we show the welding of amorphous silica nanospheres within seconds at room temperature with nanoscale resolution (even down to sub-10 nm depending on nanoparticle size) while retaining the intrinsic excellent properties of silica. We further demonstrate the ability to expedite or suspend the nanowelding process by introducing an additional gas environment, offering exceptional controllability. Our approach would potentially allow ultra-high-resolution bottom-up assembly and three-dimensional (3D) printing of silica nanostructures for various functional glass micro/nano devices. Cold welding of nanoscale silica glass is demonstrated by in situ TEM with controlled electron beam irradiation and a gas environment. It shows ultra-high resolution, high welding quality, and controllability, which is promising for the additive manufacturing of 3D nanoscale glass devices.