Size-induced stability and structural transition in monodispersed indium nanoparticles -: art. no. 083102

The present study reports the stability and the physical significance of the size-induced crystallographic structural transition in the gas-phase synthesized monodispersed indium nanoparticles. Transmission electron microscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy studies reveal that the formation of a thin oxide shell results in enhanced stability of indium nanoparticles. These results also show a size-induced structural transition from the bulk tetragonal to face-centered-cubic structure, which is attributed to an increase in the binding energy of core electrons of indium nanoparticles due to quantum confinement effects and the presence of a thin oxide shell. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.