Ancient craft, new perspective: Recovery and recrystallization of deformed metal nanoparticles

Metallic nanoparticles are utilized in a growing number of applications due to their unique and tunable properties. However, one of the primary tools used to tune bulk metals properties, recrystallization, is yet to be used in the case of nanoparticles. We studied pristine, single crystal platinum nanoparticles during a recrystallization annealing after deformation. We found that deformation causes a dramatic change in particles orientation, while annealing induced a plethora of different particle behaviors. Microstructurally, nucleation of new grains was observed, but in the smallest particles these new grains were quickly absorbed back into the deformed matrix. We describe a phenomenological kinetic model to explain the strong correlation between the particle properties and their annealing behavior.