- Peng, Xinxing;
- Zhu, Fu-Chun;
- Jiang, You-Hong;
- Sun, Juan-Juan;
- Xiao, Liang-Ping;
- Zhou, Shiyuan;
- Bustillo, Karen C;
- Lin, Long-Hui;
- Cheng, Jun;
- Li, Jian-Feng;
- Liao, Hong-Gang;
- Sun, Shi-Gang;
- Zheng, Haimei
An understanding of solid-liquid interfaces is of great importance for fundamental research as well as industrial applications. However, it has been very challenging to directly image solid-liquid interfaces with high resolution, thus their structure and properties are often unknown. Here, we report a quasi-liquid phase between metal (In, Sn) nanoparticle surfaces and an aqueous solution observed using liquid cell transmission electron microscopy. Our real-time high-resolution imaging reveals a thin layer of liquid-like materials at the interfaces with the frequent appearance of small In nanoclusters. Such a quasi-liquid phase serves as an intermediate for the mass transport from the metal nanoparticle to the liquid. Density functional theory-molecular dynamics simulations demonstrate that the positive charges of In ions greatly contribute to the stabilization of the quasi-liquid phase on the metal surface.