Atomic imaging of the coherent interface between orientedly-attached Mn3O4 nanoparticles

In this paper, coherent interfaces between orientedly-attached (OA) Mn3O4 nanoparticles are fully reconstructed based on atomic-scale high angle annular dark field (HAADF) - scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) direct imaging technique. According to the characterization, five characteristics of the oriented attachment between Mn3O4 are proposed: (1) [100]Mn3O4 direction sharing; (2) crystallographic plane sharing for every two attached particles; (3) preference for O2 − close-packed crystallographic planes to form the OA interface; (4) “defect transfers” compensating the deviation between the macroscopic interface and the atomic interface; (5) possible chemical state changes of the interfacial atoms.