Modification of the Mechanical Properties of Core‐Shell Liquid Gallium Nanoparticles by Thermal Oxidation at Low Temperature

Gallium nanoparticles (Ga NPs) are attracting increasing attention because of their appealing physical‐chemical properties. In particular, their mechanical properties play a key role in the implementation of these core‐shell structures on certain applications, such as soft and stretchable electronic...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Particle & particle systems characterization 2021-10, Vol.38 (10), p.n/a
Main Authors: Catalán‐Gómez, Sergio, Redondo‐Cubero, Andrés, Morales, Miguel, de la Mata, María, Molina, Sergio I., Palomares, Francisco J., Carnicero, Alberto, Pau, Jose L., Vázquez, Luis
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atomic force microscopy
Atomic radius
Chemical properties
core‐shell nanoparticles
Elastic deformation
Gallium oxides
Heat treatment
liquid gallium
Low temperature
Mechanical properties
Modulus of elasticity
Nanoparticles
Oxidation
Shells (structural forms)
Stiffness
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Gallium nanoparticles (Ga NPs) are attracting increasing attention because of their appealing physical‐chemical properties. In particular, their mechanical properties play a key role in the implementation of these core‐shell structures on certain applications, such as soft and stretchable electronics. Thus, efforts are being addressed to modulate them mainly by chemical means. In contrast, this study investigates how the mechanical properties of the outer gallium thin oxide shell change when its thickness is increased through a thermal oxidation strategy. Specifically, as‐deposited Ga NPs, as well as those subjected to thermal oxidation at 300 °C for three different times, are studied by performing single‐particle indentations by atomic force microscopy over a wide range of NP radius. This analysis helps to confirm that the Reissner's thin‐shell model for small deformations within the elastic regime is obeyed. From these data, the dependence of the shell stiffness and the Young's modulus of the gallium oxide on the thermal treatment is obtained. It is found that the shell stiffness increases with the annealing time, even by a factor of 50 under prolonged thermal oxidation, while the gallium oxide Young's modulus, close to 30 GPa, does not change significantly. The modulation of the mechanical properties of the core‐shell structure of gallium nanoparticles (NPs) is performed by thermal oxidation processes. The study is carried out by single‐particle indentations by atomic force microscopy over a wide range of NP radius. It is found that the shell stiffness increases up to 50 times while the Young's modulus does not change significantly.
ISSN:0934-0866
1521-4117
DOI:10.1002/ppsc.202100141