Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Ba, Jianhua
• Feldhoff, Armin
• Fattakhova Rohlfing, Dina
• Wark, Michael
• Antonietti, Markus
• Niederberger, Markus

Titel

Crystallization of Indium Tin Oxide Nanoparticles: From Cooperative Behavior to Individuality

Ist Teil von

• Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany), 2007-02, Vol.3 (2), p.310-317

Ort / Verlag

Weinheim: WILEY-VCH Verlag

Erscheinungsjahr

2007

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The crystallization pathway of indium tin oxide nanoparticles during solvothermal synthesis in benzyl alcohol was investigated. The synthesis was stopped after different reaction times in the range of 1–24 h, and the structural and morphological characteristics of the products were analyzed by powder X‐ray diffraction, electron microscopy, and UV/Vis spectroscopy. Interestingly, the crystallization mechanism does not proceed along a simple nucleation and growth pathway, but involves a two‐step process. In the first 12 h an intermediate phase is formed, which consists of nanocrystallites 3–6 nm in size stabilized by an organic matrix. In this organic–inorganic network the nanoparticles are aligned into superstructures, but without any crystallographic orientation. After 12 h the intermediate phase is abruptly transformed into indium tin oxide nanoparticles with the bixbyite structure and with crystallite sizes of about 10–12 nm. This step is accompanied by the disappearance of the organic phase and the loss of the superstructure. Indium tin oxide nanoparticles do not crystallize in a simple nucleation and growth process during solvothermal treatment in benzyl alcohol, but first form an intermediate phase consisting of aligned nanocrystallites embedded in an organic matrix. This process is followed by transformation into the bixbyite structure with larger crystallites (see TEM image), accompanied by the disappearance of both the organic phase and the superstructure.