Researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have discovered that uneven strain distribution in penta-twinned gold nanoparticles can lead to detwinning. Using electron microscopy and molecular dynamics simulations, they observed that tensile strain causes dislocation slipping and plane gliding, which results in twin boundary migration and detwinning. This process involves the rearrangement of atomic layers and the relaxation of surface and lattice strain energies. Understanding these mechanisms at the atomic level could help in the precise control of nanoparticle structures for various applications.
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