In
this paper, we investigate the structural and morphological
changes caused by the electron-beam irradiation that led to the growth
of complex extruded filaments on the surfaces of α-Ag2WO4. To provide a complete description of this phenomenon,
both scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron
microscope (TEM) were employed in this study. Our experimental results
evidenced that the extruded material was able to exhibit growth on
different crystallographic faces, depending on the kind of microscope
adopted during the electron-beam irradiation. For a more complete
analysis, different electron-beam current densities in TEM were used
to investigate all in situ modifications in the microcrystals.
For the first time, besides the metallic silver, the presence of silver
oxides (Ag2O and Ag3O4) were detected
in the composition of extruded material. The diffusion mechanisms
related to morphological modifications in the samples irradiated in
SEM and TEM were discussed in detail. The coprecipitation reaction
in dimethyl sulfoxide was chosen as the synthetic route, which favored
the appearance of rectangular rod-like α-Ag2WO4 microcrystals. A growth mechanism was proposed to explain
the formation and growth processes of these microcrystals.
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