Nanoparticle Assembly: Revealing Driving Forces in Quantum Dot Supercrystal Assembly (Adv. Mater. 43/2018)

The assembly of nanocrystals into ordered supercrystals promises cheap fabrication of high-quality optoelectronic devices, but remains challenging. In article number 1803433, Peter Schall and co-workers unravel the kinetic detail of supercrystal assembly by in situ X-ray scattering. Supercrystals consisting of CdSe nanocrystals with ligands are illustrated, which diffract the incident X-ray beam to reveal crucial structural and thermodynamic information about the supercrystal's nucleation and growth.