2025/12/09 by Harouna-Mayer, Sani Y., Klemeyer, Lars, Zito, Cecilia A. +24
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Engineering · Materials Science · #Advanced Electron Microscopy Techniques and Applications #Data Analysis #FOS: Physical sciences #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) #SAS software applications and methods #Statistics and Probability (physics.data-an) #X-ray Diffraction in Crystallography
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2512.08488
openalex publication_date 2025/12/09 · openalex created_date 2025/12/11 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Single-particle small-angle X-ray scattering (SP-SAXS) enables quantitative morphological analysis by recording diffraction snapshots from isolated particles using X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) pulses. Unlike conventional X-ray techniques, which average over the entire illuminated sample volume, SP-SAXS resolves low-contrast, less abundant, or transient species within heterogeneous particle populations that would otherwise remain hidden. Here, we apply SP-SAXS to investigate the solvothermal formation of CoO nanocrystal assemblies from a Co(acac)3 precursor in benzyl alcohol. The single-particle data reveal amorphous, uniform-density Co(acac)2 spheres as transient intermediates that directly crystallize into cavernous CoO nanocrystal assemblies, which explains why CoO forms as hierarchical aggregates rather than as isolated nanocrystals. These results demonstrate that SP-SAXS provides a powerful framework for disentangling morphological heterogeneity in nanoparticle formation processes.