Sintering of nanoparticles to create films and patterns of functional materials is emerging as a key manufacturing process in applications like flexible electronics, solar cells and thin-film devices. Further, there is the emerging potential to use nanoparticle sintering to perform additive manufacturing as well. While the effect of nanoparticle size on sintering has been well studied, very little attention has been paid to the effect of nanoparticle shape on the evolution of sintering. This paper uses Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to determine the influence of particle shape on shrinkage and neck growth for two common nanoparticle shape combinations, i.e., sphere-sphere and sphere-cylinder nanoparticles of different sizes. These sintering indicators are examined at two different temperature ramps. The results from this work show that depending on their relative sizes, degree of neck growth and shrinkage are both significantly affected by the nanoparticle shape. The possibility of using this phenomenon to control density and stresses during nanoparticle sintering are discussed.
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This content will become publicly available on November 1, 2025
Surface Self-Diffusion Induced Sintering of Nanoparticles
Despite the critical role of sintering phenomena in constraining the long-term durability of nano-sized particles, a clear understanding of nanoparticle sintering has remained elusive due to the challenges in atomically tracking the neck initiation and discerning different mechanisms. Through the integration of in-situ transmission electron microscopy and atomistic modeling, this study uncovers the atomic dynamics governing the neck initiation of Pt-Fe nanoparticles via a surface self-diffusion process, allowing for coalescence without significant particle movement. Real-time imaging reveals that thermally activated surface morphology changes in individual nanoparticles induce significant surface self-diffusion. The kinetic entrapment of self-diffusing atoms in the gaps between closely spaced nanoparticles leads to the nucleation and growth of atomic layers for neck formation. This surface self-diffusion-driven sintering process is activated at a relatively lower temperature compared to the classic Ostwald ripening and particle migration and coalescence processes. The fundamental insights have practical implications for manipulating the morphology, size distribution, and stability of nanostructures by leveraging surface self-diffusion processes.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1905422
- PAR ID:
- 10554153
- Publisher / Repository:
- American Chemical Society
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- ACS Nano
- ISSN:
- 1936-0851
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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