TY - JOUR
T1 - In-situ electron microscopy mapping of an order-disorder transition in a superionic conductor
AU - Heo, Jaeyoung
AU - Dumett Torres, Daniel
AU - Banerjee, Progna
AU - Jain, Prashant K.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, The Author(s).
PY - 2019/12/1
Y1 - 2019/12/1
N2 - Solid-solid phase transitions are processes ripe for the discovery of correlated atomic motion in crystals. Here, we monitor an order-disorder transition in real-time in nanoparticles of the super-ionic solid, Cu 2−x Se. The use of in-situ high-resolution transmission electron microscopy allows the spatiotemporal evolution of the phase transition within a single nanoparticle to be monitored at the atomic level. The high spatial resolution reveals that cation disorder is nucleated at low co-ordination, high energy sites of the nanoparticle where cationic vacancy layers intersect with surface facets. Time-dependent evolution of the reciprocal lattice of individual nanoparticles shows that the initiation of cation disorder is accompanied by a ~3% compression of the anionic lattice, establishing a correlation between these two structural features of the lattice. The spatiotemporal insights gained here advance understanding of order-disorder transitions, ionic structure and transport, and the role of nanoparticle surfaces in phase transitions.
AB - Solid-solid phase transitions are processes ripe for the discovery of correlated atomic motion in crystals. Here, we monitor an order-disorder transition in real-time in nanoparticles of the super-ionic solid, Cu 2−x Se. The use of in-situ high-resolution transmission electron microscopy allows the spatiotemporal evolution of the phase transition within a single nanoparticle to be monitored at the atomic level. The high spatial resolution reveals that cation disorder is nucleated at low co-ordination, high energy sites of the nanoparticle where cationic vacancy layers intersect with surface facets. Time-dependent evolution of the reciprocal lattice of individual nanoparticles shows that the initiation of cation disorder is accompanied by a ~3% compression of the anionic lattice, establishing a correlation between these two structural features of the lattice. The spatiotemporal insights gained here advance understanding of order-disorder transitions, ionic structure and transport, and the role of nanoparticle surfaces in phase transitions.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41467-019-09502-5
DO - 10.1038/s41467-019-09502-5
M3 - Article
C2 - 30944324
AN - SCOPUS:85063944574
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 10
JO - Nature communications
JF - Nature communications
IS - 1
M1 - 1505
ER -