Controlling the Size and Morphology of Au@Pd Core–Shell Nanocrystals by Manipulating the Kinetics of Seeded Growth

This article reports a systematic study of the seed‐mediated growth of Au@Pd core–shell nanocrystals with a variety of controlled sizes and morphologies. The key to the success of this synthesis is to manipulate the reaction kinetics by tuning a set of reaction parameters, including the type and concentration of capping agent, the amount of ascorbic acid used as the reducing agent, and the injection rate used for the precursor solution. Starting from Au nanospheres of 11 nm in diameter as the seeds, Au@Pd core–shell nanocrystals with a number of morphologies, including octahedra, concave octahedra, rectangular bars, cubes, concave cubes, and dendrites, could all be obtained by simply altering the reaction rate. For the first time, it was possible to generate Au@Pd nanocrystals with concave structures on the surfaces while their sizes were kept below 20 nm. In addition, the as‐prepared Au@Pd nanocubes can be used as seeds to generate Au@Pd@Au and Au@Pd@Au@Pd nanocrystals with multishelled structures.     

Controlling the size and morphology of Au@Pd core-shell nanocrystals by manipulating the kinetics of seeded growth

This article reports a systematic study of the seed-mediated growth of Au@Pd core-shell nanocrystals with a variety of controlled sizes and morphologies. The key to the success of this synthesis is to manipulate the reaction kinetics by tuning a set of reaction parameters, including the type and concentration of capping agent, the amount of ascorbic acid used as the reducing agent, and the injection rate used for the precursor solution. Starting from Au nanospheres of 11?nm in diameter as the seeds, Au@Pd core-shell nanocrystals with a number of morphologies, including octahedra, concave octahedra, rectangular bars, cubes, concave cubes, and dendrites, could all be obtained by simply altering the reaction rate. For the first time, it was possible to generate Au@Pd nanocrystals with concave structures on the surfaces while their sizes were kept below 20?nm. In addition, the as-prepared Au@Pd nanocubes can be used as seeds to generate Au@Pd@Au and Au@Pd@Au@Pd nanocrystals with multishelled structures.     

Noble-metal nanocrystals with concave surfaces: synthesis and applications

Metal nanocrystals with concave surfaces are interesting for a wide variety of applications that are related to catalysis, plasmonics, and surface‐enhanced spectroscopy. This interest arises from their high‐index facets, surface cavities, and sharp corners/edges. Two major challenges are associated with this novel class of nanocrystals: 1) how to generate a concave surface with negative curvature, which is not favored by thermodynamics owing to its higher energy than the convex counterpart; and 2) how to stabilize the morphology of a nanocrystal with concave structures on the surface. Recently, a number of different procedures have been developed for the synthesis of noble‐metal nanocrystals with concave surfaces. This Review provides a brief account of these developments, with the aim of offering new insights into the growth mechanisms. We focus on methods based on two general strategies: 1) site‐specific dissolution through etching and galvanic replacement; and 2) directionally controlled overgrowth by facet‐selective capping, kinetic control, and template‐directed epitaxy. Their enhanced catalytic and electrocatalytic properties are also described.     

以单晶银纳米方块为液相外延生长晶种的纳米晶形貌可控合成方法

本文简要综述了以单晶银纳米方块做为可控外延生长的品种来合成各种银纳米晶的相关工作．通过改变银前驱体和晶种颗粒的比例、表面包裹分子及其用量、还原剂浓度、添加欠电位金属阳离子等手段,我们成功地控制了银纳米晶的外延生长方向和裸露晶面,并合成出一系列尺寸、形貌可控的银纳米晶,包括立方体、立方八面体、八面体、八足体、二十四面体、凹面立方八面体和凹面八面体等．除了对合成方法和过程的介绍,本文还简要讨论了每种纳米结构的形成机制．     

Amine-assisted synthesis of concave polyhedral platinum nanocrystals having {411} high-index facets

High-index surfaces of a face-centered cubic metal (e.g., Pd, Pt) have a high density of low-coordinated surface atoms and therefore possess enhanced catalysis activity in comparison with low-index faces. However, because of their high surface energy, the challenge of chemically preparing metal nanocrystals having high-index facets remains. We demonstrate in this work that introducing amines as the surface controller allows concave Pt nanocrystals having {411} high-index facets to be prepared through a facile wet-chemical route. The as-prepared Pt nanocrystals display a unique octapod morphology with {411} facets. The presence of high-index {411} exposed facets endows the concave Pt nanocrystals with excellent electrocatalytic activity in the oxidation of both formic acid and ethanol.     

Fabrication of Au-Pd core-shell heterostructures with systematic shape evolution using octahedral nanocrystal cores and their catalytic activity

By using octahedral gold nanocrystals with sizes of approximately 50 nm as the structure-directing cores for the overgrowth of Pd shells, Au-Pd core-shell heterostructures with systematic shape evolution can be directly synthesized. Core-shell octahedra, truncated octahedra, cuboctahedra, truncated cubes, and concave cubes were produced by progressively decreasing the amount of the gold nanocrystal solution introduced into the reaction mixture containing cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), H(2)PdCl(4), and ascorbic acid. The core-shell structure and composition of these nanocrystals has been confirmed. Only the concave cubes are bounded by a variety of high-index facets. This may be a manifestation of the release of lattice strain with their thick shells at the corners. Formation of the [CTA](2)[PdBr(4)] complex species has been identified spectroscopically. Time-dependent UV-vis absorption spectra showed faster Pd source consumption rates in the growth of truncated cubes and concave cubes, while a much slower reduction rate was observed in the generation of octahedra. The concave cubes and octahedra were used as catalysts for a Suzuki coupling reaction. They can all serve as effective and recyclable catalysts, but the concave cubes gave higher product yields with a shorter reaction time attributed to their high-index surface facets. The concave cubes can also catalyze a wide range of Suzuki coupling reactions using aryl iodides and arylboronic acids with electron-donating and -withdrawing substituents.     

钯纳米粒子的形貌可控合成与催化性能

借助于一种全新的表面活性剂N,N-dimethyloctadecylammonium bromide acetate sodium（OTAB-Na）,成功实现了对小尺寸钯纳米粒子微结构的控制。通过对合成条件的微扰,高度均匀且分散性良好的枝化结构和凹面体结构的钯纳米粒子被成功地制备。催化测试（利用氨硼烷作为氢化试剂来还原4-硝基苯酚为4-胺基苯酚）发现,钯纳米粒子的催化活性与其微观纳米结构相关,其中枝化结构的钯纳米粒子表现出了更为突出的催化性能。     

钯纳米粒子的形貌可控合成与催化性能

借助于一种全新的表面活性剂N,N-dimethyloctadecylammonium bromide acetate sodium（OTAB-Na）,成功实现了对小尺寸钯纳米粒子微结构的控制。通过对合成条件的微扰,高度均匀且分散性良好的枝化结构和凹面体结构的钯纳米粒子被成功地制备。催化测试（利用氨硼烷作为氢化试剂来还原4-硝基苯酚为4-胺基苯酚）发现,钯纳米粒子的催化活性与其微观纳米结构相关,其中枝化结构的钯纳米粒子表现出了更为突出的催化性能。     

钯纳米晶体在电催化甲酸氧化反应中的形貌效应

本文基于课题组前期工作,选用适当的金属前驱物、还原剂、稳定剂和保护剂,通过调控氧化刻蚀和反应动力学等,成功合成了形貌和尺寸均不相同的Pd纳米晶.经过认真的纳米粒子清洗和电极修饰组装,考察了它们在电催化甲酸氧化反应中的形貌与性能的关系.研究结果表明,Pd纳米晶样品的最大电流密度以纳米八面体（nanooctahedra）、纳米线（nanowires）、纳米立方体（nanocubes）、纳米瓜子（nanotapers）、凹面纳米立方体（concave nanocubes）的顺序递增,催化甲酸氧化反应的起始氧化电位均小于0.2V.研究结果印证了Pd纳米晶催化甲酸氧化反应的催化性能在尺寸效应上主要受活性表面积的影响,扣除表面积效应后的催化性能与其尺寸没有明确关系.该系列Pd纳米晶的催化性能主要取决于其表面结构,得出Pd纳米晶催化甲酸氧化反应遵循{111}晶面〈{100}晶面〈高指数晶面的性能活性顺序.综合最大电流密度和最小操作电位因素发现,Pd凹面纳米立方体和Pd纳米瓜子具有相对较好的商用价值.     

高指数晶面纳米催化剂的电化学制备及应用

催化剂的性能与其表面结构及组成密切相关,高指数晶面纳米晶的表面含有高密度的台阶原子等活性位点而表现出较高的催化活性. 本文综述了电化学方波电位方法用于Pt、Pd、Rh等贵金属高指数晶面结构纳米晶催化剂的制备、形成机理及其电催化性能的研究. 针对贵金属利用率问题,还着重介绍了具有较高质量活性的小粒径Pt二十四面体的制备. 在此基础上,还介绍了电化学方波电位方法用于低共熔溶剂中制备高指数晶面纳米晶,以及高指数晶面纳米催化剂的表面修饰及应用;最后对高指数晶面纳米催化剂的发展做出了展望.     

Facile synthesis of concave decahedra enclosed by high-index facets and truncated decahedra with a large size

Nanostructures with concave surfaces are not common, and their synthesis is still challenging. In this paper, we have successfully synthesized two kinds of five-fold-twinned Au decahedra and dodecagonal plates by changing the reaction conditions. 40 high-index {221} facets were observed in the concave decahedron. The truncated decahedral gold nanocrystals (NCs) with a large size of 250-350 nm were obtained for the first time, which breaks the assumption that the truncated five-fold-twinned Au nanoparticles (NPs) can only be obtained with a size below 5 nm. The growth mechanism and the evolution process of the gold nanostructures were discussed. This work provides a facile way to synthesize concave decahedra, truncated decahedra and dodecagonal plates with controlled nanostructures.     

A Quantitative Analysis of the Reduction Kinetics Involved in the Synthesis of Au@Pd Concave Nanocubes

Surface capping has been shown to play a pivotal role in controlling the evolution of metal nanocrystals into different shapes or morphologies. With the synthesis of Au@Pd concave nanocubes as an example, here we demonstrate that the capping agent can also impact the reduction kinetics of a precursor, and thereby its reduction pathway, for the formation of metal nanocrystals with distinct morphologies. A typical synthesis involves the reduction of a Pd^II precursor by ascorbic acid at room temperature in the presence of Au nanospheres as seeds, together with the use of hexadecyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTAC) or hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as the capping agent. In the case of CTAC, the Pd^II precursor prevails as PdCl₄²⁻, leading to the formation of Au@Pd concave nanocubes with a rough surface because of the fast reduction kinetics and thus the dominance of solution reduction pathway. When switched to CTAB, the Pd^II precursor changes to PdBr₄²⁻ that features slow reduction kinetics and surface reduction pathway. Accordingly, the Au@Pd concave nanocubes take a smooth surface. This work demonstrates that both reduction kinetics and surface capping play important roles in controlling the morphology of metal nanocrystals and these two roles are often coupled to each other.     

Facet-dependent antibacterial activity of Au nanocrystals

Engineered nanomaterials have attracted significantly attention as one of the most promising antimicrobial agents for against multidrug resistant infections. The toxicological responses of nanomaterials are closely related to their physicochemical properties, and establishment of a structure-activity relationship for nanomaterials at the nano-bio interface is of great significance for deep understanding antibacterial toxicity mechanisms of nanomaterials and designing safer antibacterial nanomaterials. In this study, the antibacterial behaviors of well-defined crystallographic facets of a series of Au nanocrystals, including {100}-facet cubes, {110}-facet rhombic dodecahedra, {111}-facet octahedra, {221}-facet trisoctahedra and {720}-facet concave cubes, was investigated, using the model bacteria Staphylococcus aureus. We find that Au nanocrystals display substantial facet-dependent antibacterial activities. The low-index facets of cubes, octahedra, and rhombic dodecahedra show considerable antibacterial activity, whereas the high-index facets of trisoctahedra and concave cubes remained inert under biological conditions. This result is in stark contrast to the previous paradigm that the high-index facets were considered to have higher bioactivity as compared with low-index facets. The antibacterial mechanism studies have shown that the facet-dependent antibacterial behaviors of Au nanocrystals are mainly caused by differential bacterial membrane damage as well as inhibition of cellular enzymatic activity and energy metabolism. The faceted Au nanocrystals are unique in that they do not induce generation of reactive oxygen species, as validated for most antibiotics and antimicrobial nanostructures. Our findings may provide a deeper understanding of facet-dependent toxicological responses and suggest the complexities of the nanomaterial-cell interactions, shedding some light on the development of high performance Au nanomaterials-based antibacterial therapeutics.     

Facet-dependent antibacterial activity of Au nanocrystals

Engineered nanomaterials have attracted significantly attention as one of the most promising antimicrobial agents for against multidrug resistant infections. The toxicological responses of nanomaterials are closely related to their physicochemical properties, and establishment of a structure-activity relationship for nanomaterials at the nano-bio interface is of great significance for deep understanding antibacterial toxicity mechanisms of nanomaterials and designing safer antibacterial nanomaterials. In this study, the antibacterial behaviors of well-defined crystallographic facets of a series of Au nanocrystals, including {100}-facet cubes, {110}-facet rhombic dodecahedra, {111}-facet octahedra, {221}-facet trisoctahedra and {720}-facet concave cubes, was investigated, using the model bacteria Staphylococcus aureus. We find that Au nanocrystals display substantial facet-dependent antibacterial activities. The low-index facets of cubes, octahedra, and rhombic dodecahedra show considerable antibacterial activity, whereas the high-index facets of trisoctahedra and concave cubes remained inert under biological conditions. This result is in stark contrast to the previous paradigm that the high-index facets were considered to have higher bioactivity as compared with low-index facets. The antibacterial mechanism studies have shown that the facet-dependent antibacterial behaviors of Au nanocrystals are mainly caused by differential bacterial membrane damage as well as inhibition of cellular enzymatic activity and energy metabolism. The faceted Au nanocrystals are unique in that they do not induce generation of reactive oxygen species, as validated for most antibiotics and antimicrobial nanostructures. Our findings may provide a deeper understanding of facet-dependent toxicological responses and suggest the complexities of the nanomaterial-cell interactions, shedding some light on the development of high performance Au nanomaterials-based antibacterial therapeutics.     

Synthesis of Pd-Pt bimetallic nanocrystals with a concave structure through a bromide-induced galvanic replacement reaction

This article describes a systematic study of the galvanic replacement reaction between PtCl(6)(2-) ions and Pd nanocrystals with different shapes, including cubes, cuboctahedrons, and octahedrons. It was found that Br(-) ions played an important role in initiating, facilitating, and directing the replacement reaction. The presence of Br(-) ions led to the selective initiation of galvanic replacement from the {100} facets of Pd nanocrystals, likely due to the preferential adsorption of Br(-) ions on this crystallographic plane. The site-selective galvanic replacement resulted in the formation of Pd-Pt bimetallic nanocrystals with a concave structure owing to simultaneous dissolution of Pd atoms from the {100} facets and deposition of the resultant Pt atoms on the {111} facets. The Pd-Pt concave nanocubes with different weight percentages of Pt at 3.4, 10.4, 19.9, and 34.4 were also evaluated as electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Significantly, the sample with a 3.4 wt.% of Pt exhibited the largest specific electrochemical surface area and was found to be four times as active as the commercial Pt/C catalyst for the ORR in terms of equivalent Pt mass.     

A cast-mold approach to iron oxide and Pt/iron oxide nanocontainers and nanoparticles with a reactive concave surface

We report the synthesis of various iron oxide nanocontainers and Pt-iron oxide nanoparticles based on a cast-mold approach, starting from nanoparticles having a metal core (either Au or AuPt) and an iron oxide shell. Upon annealing, the particles evolve to asymmetric core-shells and then to heterodimers. If iodine is used to leach Au out of these structures, asymmetric core-shells evolve into "nanocontainers", that is, iron oxide nanoparticles enclosing a cavity accessible through nanometer-sized pores, while heterodimers evolve into particles with a concave region. When starting from a metal domain made of AuPt, selective leaching of the Au atoms yields the same iron oxide nanoparticle morphologies but now encasing Pt domains (in their concave region or in their cavity). We found that the concave nanoparticles are capable of destabilizing Au nanocrystals of sizes matching that of the concave region. In addition, for the nanocontainers, we propose two different applications: (i) we demonstrate loading of the cavity region of the nanocontainers with the antitumoral drug cis-platin; and (ii) we show that nanocontainers encasing Pt domains can act as recoverable photocatalysts for the reduction of a model dye.     

Synthesis of palladium concave Nanocubes with high‐index facets and their catalytic properties

Palladium nanocrystals with a variety of shapes have received particular interest in recent years due to their unique properties in catalysis. Herein, Pd concave nanocubes with high‐index facets (Pd‐CNs) was synthesized by a simple water‐based route without seeds using L‐ascorbic acid (AA) as the reduction agent in the presence of CTAB. X‐ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy were employed to demonstrate the formation of concave structures with high‐index facets of the Pd‐CNs with an average size of 17.5 nm. The as‐prepared Pd‐CNs presented significantly higher catalytic activity than commercial Pd/C (an average particle size of 4.7 nm) in the electro‐oxidation of methanol, but exhibited weaker property in Suzuki coupling reaction, which provided an evidence for the effect of shape and size on different reactions.     

Synthesis of nanocrystals with variable high-index Pd facets through the controlled heteroepitaxial growth of trisoctahedral Au templates

The shape-controlled synthesis of noble metal nanocrystals (NCs) bounded by high-index facets is a current research interest because the products have the potential of significantly improving the catalytic performance of NCs in industrially important reactions. This study reports a versatile method for synthesizing polyhedral NCs enclosed by a variety of high-index Pd facets. The method is based on the heteroepitaxial growth of Pd layers on concave trisoctahedral (TOH) gold NC seeds under careful control of the growth kinetics. Polyhedral Au@Pd NCs with three different classes of high-index facets, including concave TOH NCs with {hhl} facets, concave hexoctahedral (HOH) NCs with {hkl} facets, and tetrahexahedral (THH) NCs with {hk0} facets, can be formed in high yield. The Miller indices of NCs are also modifiable, and we have used the THH NCs as a demonstrative example. The catalytic activities of these NCs were evaluated by the structure-sensitive reaction of formic acid electro-oxidation. The results showed that the high-index facets are generally more active than the low-index facets. In summary, a seeded growth process based on concave high-index faceted monometallic TOH NC templates and careful control of the growth kinetics is a simple and effective strategy for the synthesis of noble metal NCs with high-index facets. It also offers tailorability of the surface structure in shape-controlled synthesis.     

A universal route with fine kinetic control to a family of penta-twinned gold nanocrystals

Some of the major difficulties hindering the synthesis of different types of colloidal nanocrystals are their complex synthetic methods and the lack of a universal growth mechanism in one system. Herein, we propose a general strategy of kinetically controlled seed-mediated growth to synthesize a family of penta-twinned gold nanocrystals. Specifically, different kinds of penta-twinned nanocrystals (truncated penta-twinned decahedra, truncated bipyramids, bipyramids, truncated bipyramids with tips, star-like penta-twinned nanocrystals, decahedra with concave edges, and decahedra) with tunable sizes and high purity were readily achieved in one system solely by tailoring the deposition kinetics of adatoms on different sites of decahedral seeds. The controllable deposition kinetics can be realized by changing the ratio of reductant/gold precursors (R), which dictates whether horizontal or vertical features along the 5-fold axis direction of Au decahedral seeds are produced. Additionally, the selective growth of a second metal (silver) on penta-twinned gold seeds can be reached through minor modification of R, which opens a new avenue for mechanistic investigation by visualizing the seed localization within the final particles. The present work demonstrates a general paradigm for the kinetic growth of penta-twinned crystals and would be extended to the synthesis of other families of nanocrystals.

We report the synthesis of linear ADPr oligomers of defined length up to a pentamer using an improved solid phase method. Binding study with human oncogenic helicase ALC1 shows that ADPr oligomers bind to ALC1 in a length-dependent manner.     

纳晶的制备及其光谱的尺寸依赖性

用再沉淀法制备了纳米晶体,向体系中加入水溶性高分子聚乙烯醇（PVA）可有效地抑制纳晶的生长,从而制得了稳定的具有不同粒径的纳晶.光谱研究表明,随着纳晶粒径增加,由于纳晶中分子间相互作用的变化,其吸收峰和激发峰位置都发生了红移,同时纳晶中激基缔合物的荧光发射峰强度减弱,荧光寿命有所延长.