scholarly journals In Situ Investigation of the Silver-CTAB System

2007 ◽  
Vol 1017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Gray ◽  
Christine Orme ◽  
Danxu Du ◽  
David Srolovitz

AbstractRecent research has shown that biologically inspired approaches to materials synthesis and self-assembly, hold promise of unprecedented atomic level control of structure and interfaces. In particular, the use of organic molecules to control the production of inorganic technological materials has the potential for controlling grain structure to enhance material strength; controlling facet expression for enhanced catalytic activity; and controlling the shape of nanostructured materials to optimize optical, electrical and magnetic properties. In this work, we use organic molecules to modify silver crystal shapes towards understanding the metal-organic interactions that lead to nanoparticle shape control.Using in situ electrochemical AFM (EC-AFM) as an in situ probe, we study the influence of a cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylamminobromide (CTAB) on Ag growth during electrochemical deposition on Ag(100). The results show that the organic surfactant leads to a unique crystal growth habit. With CTAB present in the growth solution, Ag islands grow in a truncated pyramidal shape. To understand the shape evolution of the Ag islands, we utilize electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) in conjunction with microscopic ellipsometry to characterize the facet-specific binding of the organic molecules to large-grained polycrystalline Ag substrates.

Crystals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 555 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hadjer Ouaddah ◽  
Maike Becker ◽  
Thècle Riberi-Béridot ◽  
Maria Tsoutsouva ◽  
Vasiliki Stamelou ◽  
...  

To control the final grain structure and the density of structural crystalline defects in silicon (Si) ingots is still a main issue for Si used in photovoltaic solar cells. It concerns both innovative and conventional fabrication processes. Due to the dynamic essence of the phenomena and to the coupling of mechanisms at different scales, the post-mortem study of the solidified ingots gives limited results. In the past years, we developed an original system named GaTSBI for Growth at high Temperature observed by Synchrotron Beam Imaging, to investigate in situ the mechanisms involved during solidification. X-ray radiography and X-ray Bragg diffraction imaging (topography) are combined and implemented together with the running of a high temperature (up to 2073 K) solidification furnace. The experiments are conducted at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF). Both imaging techniques provide in situ and real time information during growth on the morphology and kinetics of the solid/liquid (S/L) interface, as well as on the deformation of the crystal structure and on the dynamics of structural defects including dislocations. Essential features of twinning, grain nucleation, competition, strain building, and dislocations during Si solidification are characterized and allow a deeper understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of its growth.


1993 ◽  
Vol 328 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. C. Fou ◽  
D. L. Ellis ◽  
M. F. Rubner

ABSTRACTA novel thin film processing technique has been developed for the fabrication of ultrathin films of conducting polymers with angstrom-level control over thickness and multilayer architecture. Molecular self-assembly of in-situ polymerized conjugated polymers consists of a layer-by-layer process in which a substrate is alternately dipped into a solution of a p-doped conducting polymer (e.g. polypyrrole, polyaniline) and a solution of a polyanion. In-situ oxidative polymerization produces the more highly conductive, underivatized form of the conjugated polymer, which is deposited in a single layer of precisely controlled thickness (30 to 60 Å). The thickness of each layer can be fine-tuned by adjusting the dipping time and the solution chemistry. The surface chemistry of the substrate (e.g. hydrophobic, charged, etc.) also strongly influences the deposition, thereby making it possible to selectively deposit conducting polypyrrole onto well defined regions of the substrates. Typical multilayer films exhibit conductivities in the range of 20–50 S/cm, but samples with conductivities as high as 300 S/cm have been realized. There is no limit to the number of layers that can be built up nor to the complexity of the multilayer architecture of the film; achieved simply by alternating the sequence of dips into solutions of various polycations and polyanions. This new self-assembly process opens up vast possibilities in applications which require large area, ultrathin films of conducting polymers and, more importantly, in applications that can take advantage of the unique interactions achievable in the complex, supermolecular architectures of multilayer films.


Author(s):  
D. Reis ◽  
B. Vian ◽  
J. C. Roland

Wall morphogenesis in higher plants is a problem still open to controversy. Until now the possibility of a transmembrane control and the involvement of microtubules were mostly envisaged. Self-assembly processes have been observed in the case of walls of Chlamydomonas and bacteria. Spontaneous gelling interactions between xanthan and galactomannan from Ceratonia have been analyzed very recently. The present work provides indications that some processes of spontaneous aggregation could occur in higher plants during the formation and expansion of cell wall.Observations were performed on hypocotyl of mung bean (Phaseolus aureus) for which growth characteristics and wall composition have been previously defined.In situ, the walls of actively growing cells (primary walls) show an ordered three-dimensional organization (fig. 1). The wall is typically polylamellate with multifibrillar layers alternately transverse and longitudinal. Between these layers intermediate strata exist in which the orientation of microfibrils progressively rotates. Thus a progressive change in the morphogenetic activity occurs.


Author(s):  
S. Naka ◽  
R. Penelle ◽  
R. Valle

The in situ experimentation technique in HVEM seems to be particularly suitable to clarify the processes involved in recrystallization. The material under investigation was unidirectionally cold-rolled titanium of commercial purity. The problem was approached in two different ways. The three-dimensional analysis of textures was used to describe the texture evolution during the primary recrystallization. Observations of bulk-annealed specimens or thin foils annealed in the microscope were also made in order to provide information concerning the mechanisms involved in the formation of new grains. In contrast to the already published work on titanium, this investigation takes into consideration different values of the cold-work ratio, the temperature and the annealing time.Two different models are commonly used to explain the recrystallization textures i.e. the selective grain growth model (Beck) or the oriented nucleation model (Burgers). The three-dimensional analysis of both the rolling and recrystallization textures was performed to identify the mechanismsl involved in the recrystallization of titanium.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaine A. Kelly ◽  
Judith E. Houston ◽  
Rachel Evans

Understanding the dynamic self-assembly behaviour of azobenzene photosurfactants (AzoPS) is crucial to advance their use in controlled release applications such as<i></i>drug delivery and micellar catalysis. Currently, their behaviour in the equilibrium <i>cis-</i>and <i>trans</i>-photostationary states is more widely understood than during the photoisomerisation process itself. Here, we investigate the time-dependent self-assembly of the different photoisomers of a model neutral AzoPS, <a>tetraethylene glycol mono(4′,4-octyloxy,octyl-azobenzene) </a>(C<sub>8</sub>AzoOC<sub>8</sub>E<sub>4</sub>) using small-angle neutron scattering (SANS). We show that the incorporation of <i>in-situ</i>UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy with SANS allows the scattering profile, and hence micelle shape, to be correlated with the extent of photoisomerisation in real-time. It was observed that C<sub>8</sub>AzoOC<sub>8</sub>E<sub>4</sub>could switch between wormlike micelles (<i>trans</i>native state) and fractal aggregates (under UV light), with changes in the self-assembled structure arising concurrently with changes in the absorption spectrum. Wormlike micelles could be recovered within 60 seconds of blue light illumination. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time the degree of AzoPS photoisomerisation has been tracked <i>in</i><i>-situ</i>through combined UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy-SANS measurements. This technique could be widely used to gain mechanistic and kinetic insights into light-dependent processes that are reliant on self-assembly.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hao Wu ◽  
Jeffrey Ting ◽  
Siqi Meng ◽  
Matthew Tirrell

We have directly observed the <i>in situ</i> self-assembly kinetics of polyelectrolyte complex (PEC) micelles by synchrotron time-resolved small-angle X-ray scattering, equipped with a stopped-flow device that provides millisecond temporal resolution. This work has elucidated one general kinetic pathway for the process of PEC micelle formation, which provides useful physical insights for increasing our fundamental understanding of complexation and self-assembly dynamics driven by electrostatic interactions that occur on ultrafast timescales.


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