Evidence of strain and lattice distortion in lead sulfide nanocrystallites

摘要

X-ray diffraction studies on nanometer sized lead sulfide particles reveal the presence of a compressive strain. A number of samples with particle sizes ranging from 2 to 16 nm were synthesized using the three dimensional periodic, bicontinuous cubic phase as a matrix. Samples of the larger size particles could be indexed to an fcc lattice. As the particle size decreased below 6 nm, a tetragonal distortion of the cubic lattice was observed, accompanied by a decrease in the unit cell volume. #1997 American Institute of Physics. S0003-6951 (97)01308-9