Adjusting the inter-particle spacing of a nanoparticle array at the sub-nanometre scale by thermal annealing.

A successful attempt to fabricate nanoparticle arrays with sub-nanometre spacing by thermal annealing of the prepared nanoparticle self-assembly was made. The molecular dynamics simulation indicated that the spacing decrease could be attributed to the temperature-enhanced mobility of the ligand, which promoted the relaxation of the nanoparticles to a more compact arrangement.