Easy Way To Create Stepped Surface: A Thought from Oriented Attachment

Oriented attachment is a nonclassical and particle-based crystal growth pathway, which often leads to geologic and biological minerals that form in natural environments and have complex external morphologies and/or internal microstructures. Stepped structure, usually known as a kind of planar defects on materials surfaces, strongly influences chemical, physical and biological properties of a material. Stable stepped structure is highly demanded not only for theoretical research but also for practical applications. In this paper, we try to develop an easy way to create stepped structures on materials surfaces. This way uses crystallographically pre-aligned nanoparticles as precursors, which are typical intermediates during oriented attachment processes and sometimes known as mesocrystals. In general, mesocrystalline precursors of the target materials are synthesized first, which provide crystallographically pre-aligned nanoparticles; then sintering is applied to transform the precursors to highly crystalli...