The ordering of size selected nanocrystaline particles into large, well ordered supercrystals has been under recent study. Here we describe the ordering of silver nanocrystals, of core diameter ca. 4.5nm, passivated with alkythiolate self-assembled monolayers. The faceted nanocrystals are found to size selectively condense into ordered supercrystals with edge lengths on the order of 0.1 to 0.5 microns. Further, evidence has been found in High Resolution TEM micrographs of packed monolayers of these same nanocrystals implying an orientational ordering of the silver nanocrystals’ atomic lattices within and co-aligning with the supercrystal’s “superlattice”. A three dimensional model using a truncated octahedron for the nanocrystal core morphology is constructed from this evidence into an FCC superlattice which fits the remaining experimental observations.

Micrographs of the same region of a nanocrystal Ag supercrystal (NCASX) are shown in figure 1 under differing defocus conditions.