Crystallization clarified, researchers report

Using computer modeling and an imaging technique called liquid-phase electron microscopy, researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Northwestern University pinpointed the individual motions of nanoscale particles as they orient themselves into crystal lattices. The work confirms that synthetic nanoparticles—the fundamental building blocks of many synthetic and biological materials—can assemble in ways far more complex than larger particles, the researchers said, and paves the way to more general applications for mineralization, pharmaceuticals, optics and electronics.