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Importance of line and interfacial energies during VLS growth of finely stranded silica nanowires

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Abstract

A rich research history exists for crystalline growth by vapor–liquid–solid (VLS) methods, but not for amorphous growth. Yet VLS growth in the absence of crystallographic influences provides an ideal laboratory for exploring surface energy effects, including the role of line tension. We discuss the growth of amorphous silica nanowires from indium droplets by a modified VLS method. Multiple strands issue from each droplet, each strand having <1% (i.e.,?<?5 nm) of the radius of the droplet. We analyze the surface forces for this system, including line tension, and combine data in a novel way to estimate the surface energy of silica, the interfacial energy of liquid indium on silica, and the line tension at the three-phase boundary. The results suggest that the growth of these silica strands would be impossible without the presence of a negative line tension that also serves to stabilize the strand radii against perturbation.

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Acknowledgment

The research was carried out in collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and in part in the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory Central Facilities, University of Illinois, which are partially supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under grants DE-FG02-07ER46453 and DE-FG02-07ER46471. Financial support was provided through ANL under Grant No. DOE ANL 1F-00861. We thank Changhui Lei for his help during TEM analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, 61801

    Martin Bettge, Scott MacLaren, Steve Burdin, Daniel Abraham, Ivan Petrov & Min-Feng Yu

  2. Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, 61801, USA

    Martin Bettge

  3. Chemical Sciences and Engineering Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois, 60439, USA

    Ernie Sammann

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  1. Martin Bettge
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  2. Scott MacLaren
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  3. Steve Burdin
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  4. Daniel Abraham
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  5. Ivan Petrov
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  6. Min-Feng Yu
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  7. Ernie Sammann
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Correspondence to Martin Bettge.

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Bettge, M., MacLaren, S., Burdin, S. et al. Importance of line and interfacial energies during VLS growth of finely stranded silica nanowires. Journal of Materials Research 26, 2247–2253 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2011.151

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2011.151

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