Why do crystalline nanoparticles agglomerate with low misorientations?

We considered the role of a “grain boundary – free surface” triple line in adhesive contact formation between spherical nanoparticles and calculated the critical value of the triple line energy above which the nanoparticles do not stick together. Based on this result, we propose a new nanoparticles agglomeration mechanism, which explains the formation of large agglomerates of crystallographically aligned nanoparticles during nanopowder processing.