Educational model of a plasmonic nanosphere

This is an educational model of a crystalline metal (Au, Ag) nanosphere, which is in reality only a few nanometers in size. These nanoparticles are used for various applications in energy and healthcare research because they interact very strongly with green light and can be used, for example, for enhancing the reaction rate of chemical reactions, for locally generated heat, or for enhancing the “sensing” of surroundings molecules. 

This model was made in Blender by creating a crystal lattice using the array modifier and then cutting out the sphere shape using geometry nodes. The printing time can be rather long because a small portion of the inner atoms is also printed. I recommend scaling the nanosphere to a large enough size so that all the fine detail can be seen (350% scale in the pictures, which took 80 hours to fully print). To prevent the use of supports, you can cut the model in half in the slicer and glue two prints together, which will give a much better surface finish. In my case, I painted the model afterwards, using a filler first and a matte-gold spraypaint after.

Small disclaimer: this particular sphere contains many high surface-energy planes that wouldn't be very stable in reality, because nanoparticles tend to grow or change towards their minimum-energy configuration. In other words: the nanosphere shown here is a bit “too spherical”. Real nanoparticles are often shaped more like flat-facetted potatoes. Check out my other model for the minimum energy configurations.