In Situ Scanning X-Ray Diffraction Reveals Strain Variations in Electrochemically Grown Nanowires
2020
Templated electrochemical
growth in nanoporous alumina can be used to fabricate nanowires with
applications in magnetic storage devices, hydrogen sensors, and electrocatalysis.
It is known that nanowires, grown in such templates, are strained. The strain
in nanoscale materials can influence their performance in applications such as
catalysts and electronic devices. However, it is not well established how the
nanoporous template affects the lattice strain in the nanowires and how this
develops during the growth process due to the lack of non-destructive in
situ studies with spatial resolution. Here we have measured the strain and
grain size of palladium nanowires in nanoporous templates during the growth
process. For this we performed in situ scanning x-ray diffraction with a
submicron focused x-ray beam. We found that there is a tensile strain in the
nanowires and that it is more pronounced along the growth direction than in the
confined direction of the templates. The tensile strain measured in situ
is higher than previous ex situ reports, possibly due to hydrogen
absorption during the growth. With the spatial information made possible with
the focused synchrotron x-ray beam we could observe local variations in strain
as a function of height. A region of local strain variation is found near the
bottom of the nanowires where growth is initiated in branches at the pore
bottoms. Knowledge of how nanoporous templates influence the strain of the
nanowires may allow for atomic scale tailoring of the catalytic activity of such
nanowires or minimizing strain to optimize electronic device performance.
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