Dealloying Kinetics of AgAu Nanoparticles by In Situ Liquid-Cell Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy

Understanding the formation and evolution of bicontinuous nano-porous structure during dealloying has been one of the most challenging subjects of dealloying research. However, previous in situ investigations either suffer from insufficient spatial resolution (e.g., X-ray tomography) or lack morphology visualization and mass information (e.g., scanning tunneling microscopy). In this work, we report the kinetics of the whole course of dealloying by utilizing liquid-cell aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy. With Z-contrast imaging analysis, the in situ sub-nanoscale characterization reveals two new phenomena, an initial period of dealloying indicative of an initial length scale for bulk dealloying and a large volume shrinkage in a nanoscale alloy precursor. We explain the particle-size-dependent volume shrinkage with the formation of a dense shell and quantify the dependence with a simple geometric model. These insights into the mechanisms of dealloying will enable deliberate designs of nanoporous structures.