title: Hydroxylation Induced Alignment of Metal Oxide Nanocubes.
abstract: Water vapor is ubiquitous under ambient conditions and may alter the shape of nanoparticles. How to utilize water adsorption for nanomaterial functionality and structure formation, however, is a yet unexplored field. Herein, we report the use of water vapor to induce the self-organization of MgO nanocubes into regularly staggered one-dimensional structures. This transformation evolves via an initial alignment of the MgO cubes, the formation of intermediate elongated Mg(OH)2structures, and their reconversion into MgO cubes arranged in staggered structures. Ab initio DFT modelling identifies surface-energy changes associated with the cube surface hydration and hydroxylation to promote the uncommon staggered stacked assembly of the cubes. This first observation of metal oxide nanoparticle self-organization occurring outside a bulk solution may pave novel routes for inducing texture in ceramics and represents a great test-bed for new surface-science concepts.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Physics of Materials, Paris Lodron University of Salzburg, Hellbrunnerstrasse 34/III, 5020, Salzburg, Austria.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Thomele
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Physics of Materials, Paris Lodron University of Salzburg, Hellbrunnerstrasse 34/III, 5020, Salzburg, Austria.
authors.forename: Gilles R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Bourret
authors.affiliation: University Service Center for Transmission Electron Microscopy, Vienna University of Technology, Wiedner Hauptstrasse 8-10, 1040, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bernardi
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Physics of Materials, Paris Lodron University of Salzburg, Hellbrunnerstrasse 34/III, 5020, Salzburg, Austria.|Lehrstuhl für Theoretische Festkörperphysik, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Staudtstrasse 7B2, 91058, Erlangen, Germany.
authors.forename: Michel
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5720-4010
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bockstedte
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Physics of Materials, Paris Lodron University of Salzburg, Hellbrunnerstrasse 34/III, 5020, Salzburg, Austria.
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-2425-5281
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Diwald
keywords: hydroxylation; nanoparticles; self-organization; surface chemistry; surface energy