Abstract
The investigation of nanoparticles and quantum dots is of great interest, and the understanding of their optical, electronic and structural properties could be significantly improved if better structural information was available. In this paper a review is given on the latest improvements in a novel fit approach for powder X-ray diffraction data obtained from nanoparticles with diameters below 5 nm. The procedure is based on modelling on an atomic level and yields precise information on size, shape, structure (including impurities and stacking faults) stress, relaxation effects, etc. By implementing an ensemble averaging, we could consider distributions of the basic parameters (e.g., size distribution) and, therefore, a more realistic fit of the diffraction data is enabled. Different refinements of CdS, ZnS and ZnO particles are presented and demonstrate the superiority of the new approach compared to simpler models.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
M. Bruchez Jr., M. Moronne, P. Gin, S. Weiss, A.P. Alivisatos, Science 281, 2013 (1998)
W.C.W. Chan, S. Nie, Science 281, 2016 (1998)
L.-S. Li, A.P. Alivisatos, Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 097402 (2003)
D. Katz, T. Wizansky, O. Millo, E. Rothenberg, T. Mokari, U. Banin, Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 086801 (2002)
Z.A. Peng, X. Peng, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 123, 183 (2001)
R.N. Bhargava, J. Cryst. Growth 214, 926 (2000)
V. Albe, C. Jouanin, D. Bertho, J. Cryst. Growth. 185, 388 (1998)
J.H. Fendler (Ed.), Nanoparticles and Nanostructured Films (Wiley-VCH, Weinheim 1998)
Y. Mastai, G. Hodes, J. Phys. Chem. B 101, 2685 (1997)
A.P. Alivisatos, J. Phys. Chem. 100, 13226 (1996)
P.E. Lippens, M. Lannoo, Phys. Rev. B 39, 10935 (1989)
C. Kumpf, R.B. Neder, F. Niederdraenk, P. Luczak, A. Stahl, M. Scheuermann, S. Joshi, S.K. Kulkarni, C. Barglik-Chory, C. Heske, E. Umbach, J. Chem. Phys. 123, 224707 (2005)
A.S. Ethiraj, N. Hebalkar, S.K. Kulkarni, R. Pasricha, J. Urban, C. Dem, M. Schmitt, W. Kiefer, L. Weinhardt, S. Joshi, R. Fink, C. Heske, C. Kumpf, E. Umbach, J. Chem. Phys. 118, 8945 (2003)
C. Barglik-Chory, D. Buchol, M. Schmitt, W. Kiefer, C. Heske, C. Kumpf, O. Fuchs, L. Weinhardt, A. Stahl, E. Umbach, M. Lentze, J. Geurts, G. Müller, Chem. Phys. Lett. 379, 443 (2003)
J.N. Wickham, A.B. Herhold, A.P. Alivisatos, Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 923 (2000)
W. Vogel, J. Urban, M. Kundu, S.K. Kulkarni, Langmuir 13, 827 (1997)
J. Nanda, S. Sapra, D.D. Sarma, N. Chandrasekharan, G. Hodes, Chem. Mater. 12, 1018 (2000)
B. Palosz, E. Grzanka, S. Gierlotka, S. Stel’makh, U. Bismayer, J. Neuefeind, H.-P. Weber, T. Proffen, R. von Dreele, W. Paloz, Z. Kristallogr. 217, 497 (2002)
B.E. Warren, X-Ray Diffraction (Dover Publications, New York, 1990)
U. Winkler, D. Eich, Z.H. Chen, R. Fink, S.K. Kulkarni, E. Umbach, Chem. Phys. Lett. 306, 95 (1999)
M. Kundu, A. Khosravi, P. Singh, S.K. Kulkarni, J. Mater. Sci. 32, 245 (1997)
R. Feidenhans’l, Surf. Sci. Rep. 10, 105 (1989)
E. Vlieg, J. Appl. Cryst. 30, 532 (1997)
T. Proffen, R.B. Neder, J. Appl. Cryst. 32, 838 (1999)
B.D. Hall, R. Monot, Comput. Phys. 5, 414 (1991)
V.I. Korsounski, R.B. Neder, K. Hradil, C. Barglik-Chory, G. Müller, J. Neuefeind, J. Appl. Cryst. 36, 1389 (2003)
R. Storn, K. Price, “Differential Evolution – a Simple and Efficient Adaptive Scheme for Global Optimization over Continuous Spaces”, Technical Report TR-95-012, ICSI, Univ. of California, Berkeley, March 1995. Available at: http://www.icsi.berkeley.edu/techreports/1995.abstracts/tr-95-012.html
C. Kumpf, R.B. Neder, F. Niederdraenk, K. Seufert, P. Luczak, E. Umbach, unpublished
R.B. Neder, private communications
SIMultaneous Rietveld REFinement by U. Amann, H. Ritter, J. Ihringer, J.K. Maichle, W. Prandl, Universität Tübingen. Code available at www.uni-tuebingen.de/uni/pki/simref/simref.html
“Crystallographic and Crystallochemical Database for Mineral and their Structural Analogues”, available at http://database.iem.ac.ru/mincryst
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
PACS
61.10.Nz; 61.46.Df; 61.72.Dd
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kumpf, C. Structure determination of very small (1–5 nm) nano-particles. Appl. Phys. A 85, 337–343 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-006-3693-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-006-3693-y