Self-Assembly of Unusual Nanoparticle Crystals

摘要

The crystallization of matter on any length scale, from atoms and ions to biomolecules to nano- and microparticles, has long been a major thrust in science and technology. On page 420 of this issue, Kalsin et al. (1) report the cocrystallization of equally sized metallic nanoparticles into large crystals with diamond-like symmetry. The oppositely charged gold and silver nanoparticles attract each other at very short distances and assemble into unusual lattices. This work provides new insights into crystallization on the nanoscale, and fills in a gap in the overall picture of particle and biomol-ecule crystallization.