Effects of elastic anisotropy on strain distributions in decahedral gold nanoparticles

Metallic nanoparticles exhibit exceptional optoelectronic properties with applications in plasmonics, biosensing and nanomedicine1,2,3,4,5. Recently, new synthesis techniques have enabled precise control over the sizes and shapes of metal nanoparticles6,7,8, occasionally leading to morphologies that cannot be properly characterized using standard techniques. An example is five-fold-twinned decahedral Au nanoparticles, which are intrinsically strained as a result of their unique geometry. Various competing models have been proposed to predict the strain states of such nanoparticles. Here, we present a detailed analysis of the internal structure of a decahedral Au nanoparticle using aberration-corrected high-resolution electron microscopy and strain mapping. Our measurements confirm the presence of a disclination, which is consistent with the commonly accepted strain model. However, we also observed shear gradients, which are absent from the models. By comparing our local strain determinations with finite-element calculations, we show the effect of elastic anisotropy on the strain state in these nanoparticles.