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

用现代化学合成法可以生产直径只有几十个原子的金属和半导体超薄纳米线。它们是新材料和新设备的有趣构建块，但往往会改变形状。纳米线自发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”显然被化学合成过程中无机核心周围形成的有机壳层所抑制。我们从实验上研究了这种稳定机制，并比较了金纳米线和硫化铋纳米线，这两种纳米线具有非常相似的几何结构。我们的目标是了解稳定和衰减的机制，并研究核心材料、配体壳层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.