Yue Youfeng, Norikane Yasuo
Electronics and Photonics Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Higashi 1-1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8565, Japan.
Nat Commun. 2020 Jan 29;11(1):568. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-14260-5.
Nature has always demonstrated incredible ability to create amazing materials such as soft clay which are built from nanoplatelet packing structures. It is challenging to produce artificial clays owing to the difficulty in obtaining large volume fractions of nanoplatelets and the lack of structural control in layer-by-layer packing. Here, single-crystalline Au nanosheets are synthesized by controlled growth in the bilayer membranes of succinic acid surfactants. Then, a self-assembly strategy is used to make {111}-oriented gold nanostructures at the liquid-liquid interface. The stiffness of the nanosheet assemblies are six orders of magnitude softer than bulk gold. The Au nanosheet aggregates show high plasticity and deformable into macroscale free-standing metallic architectures. They show a stress/strain-dependent conductivity owing to morphological changes. Our study provides valuable insights on the chemical synthesis of 2D nanostructures as well as for the self-assembly strategy on fabrication of mouldable metals for producing free-standing metallic architectures with microscale resolutions.
大自然一直展现出令人惊叹的能力，能够创造出诸如软黏土之类由纳米片堆积结构构成的神奇材料。由于难以获得大体积分数的纳米片且在逐层堆积中缺乏结构控制，制造人造黏土具有挑战性。在此，通过在琥珀酸表面活性剂的双层膜中进行可控生长来合成单晶金纳米片。然后，采用自组装策略在液 - 液界面制备{111}取向的金纳米结构。纳米片组件的刚度比块状金软六个数量级。金纳米片聚集体表现出高可塑性，可变形为宏观尺度的独立金属结构。由于形态变化，它们呈现出应力/应变依赖性导电性。我们的研究为二维纳米结构的化学合成以及用于制造具有微观尺度分辨率的独立金属结构的可模压金属的自组装策略提供了有价值的见解。
