Shape stabilisation of ultrathin nanowires by core material, ligand shell, and environment

利用现代化学合成技术可以制造出直径只有几十个原子的金属和半导体的超薄纳米线。它们是新材料和新设备的有趣组成部分，但往往会改变形状。纳米线会自发地衰变成等体积的球体，从而减少了它们的表面积。这种“瑞利高原不稳定性”显然受到化学合成过程中在无机核周围形成的有机壳层的抑制。我们通过实验研究了稳定机制，并比较了金纳米线和硫化铋纳米线，我们可以制备出非常相似的几何结构。目的是了解稳定和衰变机制，并研究核心材料、配体壳的分子结构和溶剂的影响。

Ultrathin nanowires of metals and semiconductors with diameters of only few tens of atoms can be produced using modern chemical syntheses. They are interesting building blocks for novel materials and devices, but tend to change shape. The nanowires spontaneously decay into spheres of equal volume, thus reducing their surface area. This "Rayleigh Plateau instability" is apparently suppressed by the organic shells that form around the inorganic core during chemical synthesis. We investigate the stabilization mechanism experimentally and compare nanowires of gold and of bismuth sulfide, which we can prepare with very similar geometry. The goal is to understand the stabilization and decay mechanisms and to investigate the influence of the core material, the molecular structure of the ligand shell, and the solvent.