《Nat. Commun.》: Stress-induced ordering evolution of 1D segmented heteronanostructures and their chemical post-transformations

Qingxia Chen,⁺ Yuyang Lu,⁺ Yang Yang,⁺ Lige Chang, Yi Li, Yuan Yang, Zhen He,  Jianwei Liu,^* Yong Ni,^* and Shuhong Yu^*

Investigations of one-dimensional segmented heteronanostructures (1D-SHs) have recently attracted much attention due to their potentials for applications resulting from their structure and synergistic effects between compositions and interfaces. Unfortunately, developing a simple, versatile and controlled synthetic method to fabricate 1D-SHs is still a challenge. Here we demonstrate a stress-induced ordering mechanism to describe the synthesis of 1D-SHs by a general under-stoichiometric reaction strategy. Using the continuum phase-field simulations, we elaborate a three-stage evolution process of the regular segment alternations. This strategy, accompanied by easy chemical post-transformations, enables to synthesize 25 1D-SHs, including 17 nanowire-nanowire (NW-NW) and 8 nanowire-nanotube (NW-NT) nanostructures with 13 elements (Ag, Te, Cu, Pt, Pb, Cd, Sb, Se, Bi, Rh, Ir, Ru, Zn) involved. This ordering evolution-driven synthesis will help to investigate the ordering reconstruction and potential applications of 1D-SHs.

Figure 1. Schematic illustration of the chemical conversion from Te/M1Te template, showing controllable reactions with the residual Te, the generated M1Te and both.