Identification of a quasi-liquid phase at solid–liquid interface

作者：Xinxing Peng, Fuchun Zhu, Youhong Jiang, Juanjuan Sun, Liangping Xiao, Shiyuan Zhou, Karen C. Bustillo, Long‐Hui Lin, Jun Cheng, Jian‐Feng Li, Hong‐Gang Liao, Shi‐Gang Sun, Haimei Zheng · 发表于：Nature Communications · 年份：2022 · DOI：10.1038/s41467-022-31075-z · 被引用次数：50 · 研究领域：Iron oxide chemistry and applications、Surface and Thin Film Phenomena、Copper-based nanomaterials and applications

An understanding of solid-liquid interfaces is of great importance for fundamental research as well as industrial applications. However, it has been very challenging to directly image solid-liquid interfaces with high resolution, thus their structure and properties are often unknown. Here, we report a quasi-liquid phase between metal (In, Sn) nanoparticle surfaces and an aqueous solution observed using liquid cell transmission electron microscopy. Our real-time high-resolution imaging reveals a thin layer of liquid-like materials at the interfaces with the frequent appearance of small In nanoclusters. Such a quasi-liquid phase serves as an intermediate for the mass transport from the metal nanoparticle to the liquid. Density functional theory-molecular dynamics simulations demonstrate that the positive charges of In ions greatly contribute to the stabilization of the quasi-liquid phase on the metal surface.