Orientationally Ordered Silicon Nanocrystal Cuboctahedra in Superlattices

Uniform silicon nanocrystals were synthesized with cuboctahedral shape and passivated with 1-dodecene capping ligands. Transmission electron microscopy, electron diffraction, and grazing incidence wide-angle and small-angle X-ray scattering show that these soft cuboctahedra assemble into face-centered cubic superlattices with orientational order. The preferred nanocrystal orientation was found to depend on the orientation of the superlattices on...