Oriented attachment mechanism of triangular Ag nanoplates: a molecular dynamics study

Tonnam Balankura; Tianyu Yan; Omid Jahanmahin; Jenwarin Narukatpichai; Alan Ng; Kristen A Fichthorn

doi:10.1039/d0na00124d

Oriented attachment mechanism of triangular Ag nanoplates: a molecular dynamics study

Nanoscale Adv. 2020 Mar 30;2(6):2265-2270. doi: 10.1039/d0na00124d. eCollection 2020 Jun 17.

Authors

Tonnam Balankura¹, Tianyu Yan¹, Omid Jahanmahin¹, Jenwarin Narukatpichai¹, Alan Ng¹, Kristen A Fichthorn^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park PA 16802 USA fichthorn@psu.edu.
² Department of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park PA 16802 USA.

Abstract

We use molecular-dynamics simulations to probe the experimentally observed aggregation of PVP-covered triangular Ag nanoplates to form 2D sheets in solution. We find lateral plate attachment is the most favorable aggregation pathway - consistent with experiment. The mechanism is general and suggests new processing strategies for creating 2D architectures in solution-phase syntheses.