Controlled growth and transformation of colloidal nanoparticles are essential to synthesize functional nanomaterials with tailored properties. However, the involving chemical and physical processes are very complicated and barely understood, which limits the precise control over the nanoparticles. In this presentation, synchrotron x-ray scattering techniques will be discussed to serve as a unique in-situ approach to monitor these processes in real time. The strong penetration power of the synchrotron x-rays enables the possibility to probe the solid colloidal nanoparticles in liquid solutions. The real-time results provide new kinetics information involving in the fast formation of nanoparticles. The interpretation of the kinetics data is nontrivial since the assumptions have to be reasonably consistent with the characteristic details of multiple-phase reactions. The presentation will focus on the possible explanations of the growth kinetics of forming silver chlorobromide nanocubes via fast precipitation reactions and silver nanoparticles via the fast microwave-assisted reduction of silver nitrate. Whether continuous nucleation exists along the growth of nanocrystals will be discussed with a particular interest.

Do nucleation and growth have to be twin events in nanoparticle formation?

255th National Meeting (2018)

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