Nanoscale Surface Properties

Introduction

Nanoscale materials are dramatically affected by the state and properties of their surfaces. In turn, surface properties are intrinsically tied to their detailed atomic structure and composition.

The Beck Group has an extensive history of exploring the structure and properties of surfaces, and expanding understanding of how surfaces affect nanoparticles, catalysts, and electronic materials.

Nanoparticle Shapes as a Function of Temperature and Environment

One of our recent manuscripts addresses methods of calculating surface energy (and subsequently nanoparticle shape) as a function of both temperature and chemical environment (oxygen availability). Below we’ve included a movie of surface energies of all nine surfaces we examined for temperatures 0-2000 K.

Manuscript status: Under review at Applied Surface Science

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