Neither Sphere nor Cube - Analyzing the Particle Shape Using Small-Angle Scattering and the Superball Model

24 May 2021, Version 1
This content is a preprint and has not undergone peer review at the time of posting.

Abstract

Accurate characterization of the nanocrystal shape with high statistical relevance is essential for exploiting the strongly shape-dependent properties of cuboidal nanoparticles towards applications.
This work presents the development of a new small-angle scattering form factor based on the superball geometry. The superball quantifies the characteristic rounding of corners and edges of cuboidalnanoparticles with a single parameter. Applied to small-angle scattering data of sufficiently monodisperse nanoparticles, the superball form factor enables differentiation between the effects of extended
particle size distribution and irregular particle shape. The quantitative application of the superball form factor is validated against microscopy data for a series of monodisperse nanoparticles and implemented into the user-friendly, open source software Sasview.

Keywords

Nanoparticles
superball shape parameter
Small-Angle Scattering

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