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.     

Fast Synthesis of PbS Nanocrystals in Aqueous Solution with Shape Evolution from Cubic to Octahedral Structures and Their Assembled Structures

In this study, we have developed for the first time a fast and energy‐efficient method for the synthesis of PbS nanocrystals with systematic shape evolution from cubic to truncated cubic, cuboctahedral, truncated octahedral, and octahedral structures. The method involves the addition of a small volume of preheated lead acetate and thioacetamide (TAA) mixture to an aqueous growth solution of lead acetate, thioacetamide, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, and nitric acid. By varying the amount of thioacetamide added to the growth solution, PbS nanocrystals with different morphologies were generated in 2 h at 90 °C. Slight experimental modifications were adopted to generate truncated octahedra. The nanocrystals have very uniform dimensions with average sizes of 32–47 nm. Their structures have been extensively examined by electron microscopy. Nanocube sizes can also be tuned within a range. UV/Vis absorption spectra of PbS cubes, cuboctahedra, and octahedra all show decreasing but continuous absorption from 300 nm to beyond 1000 nm. By monitoring the speed of darkening of solution color, particle growth rate was found to be fastest for nanocubes, followed by truncated cubes, cuboctahedra, and octahedra. These monodisperse nanocrystals can readily form self‐assembled structures. Truncated cubes and octahedra that form monolayer and multilayer packing arrangements have also been studied. This green approach to the synthesis of PbS nanocrystals with fine size and shape control should allow for investigations of their facet‐dependent properties and the fabrication of novel heterostructures.     

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.     

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 and Light‐Assisted Efficient Hydrogen Evolution from Ammonia Borane Using Gold–Palladium Core–Shell Nanocatalysts

Au–Pd core–shell nanocrystals with tetrahexahedral (THH), cubic, and octahedral shapes and comparable sizes were synthesized. Similar‐sized Au and Pd cubes and octahedra were also prepared. These nanocrystals were used for the hydrogen‐evolution reaction (HER) from ammonia borane. Light irradiation can enhance the reaction rate for all the catalysts. In particular, Au–Pd THH exposing {730} facets showed the highest turnover frequency for hydrogen evolution under light with 3‐fold rate enhancement benefiting from lattice strain, modified surface electronic state, and a broader range of light absorption. Finite‐difference time‐domain (FDTD) simulations show a stronger electric field enhancement on Au–Pd core–shell THH than those on other Pd‐containing nanocrystals. Light‐assisted nitro reduction by ammonia borane on Au–Pd THH was also demonstrated. Au–Pd tetrahexahedra supported on activated carbon can act as a superior recyclable plasmonic photocatalyst for hydrogen evolution.     

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．     

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.     

Polyhedral gold nanocrystals with O h symmetry: from octahedra to cubes

We report the shape and size control of polyhedral gold nanocrystals by a modified polyol process. The rapid reduction of gold precursors in refluxing 1,5-pentanediol has successfully provided a series of gold nanocrystals in the shape of octahedra, truncated octahedra, cuboctahedra, cubes, and higher polygons by incremental changes of silver nitrate concentration. All nanocrystals were obtained quantitatively and were uniform in shape and size in the range of approximately 100 nm. Smaller octahedra and cubes were also prepared by using large amounts of PVP. Silver species generated from AgNO3 seemed to determine the final nanocrystal morphology by the selective growth of {111} and/or the restriction of {100}. The shape evolution of the particles was addressed by quenching the reactions at different time intervals. The approximately 60 nm seeds were generated rapidly and grown slowly with simultaneous edge sharpening. Aging the reaction mixture focused the size and shape of the nanocrystals by Ostwald ripening. We believe that our selective growth conditions can be applied to other shapes and compositions of face-centered cubic metals.     

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.     

Seed‐Mediated Synthesis of Gold Tetrahedra in High Purity and with Tunable,Well‐Controlled Sizes

We report a facile synthesis of Au tetrahedra in high purity and with tunable, well‐controlled sizes via seed‐mediated growth. The success of this synthesis relies on the use of single‐crystal, spherical Au nanocrystals as the seeds and manipulation of the reaction kinetics to induce an unsymmetrical growth pattern for the seeds. In particular, the dropwise addition of a precursor solution with a syringe pump, assisted by cetyltrimethylammonium chloride and bromide at appropriate concentrations, was found to be critical to the formation of Au tetrahedra in high purity. Their sizes could be readily tuned in the range of 30–60 nm by simply varying the amount of precursor added to the reaction solution. The current strategy not only enables the synthesis of Au tetrahedra with tunable and controlled sizes but also provides a facile and versatile approach to reducing the symmetry of nanocrystals made of a face‐centered cubic lattice.     

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.     

Ultrasmall biocompatible nanocomposites: a new approach using seeded emulsion polymerization for the encapsulation of nanocrystals

We report a novel approach of seeded emulsion polymerization in which nanocrystals are used as seeds. Ultrasmall biocompatible polymer-coated nanocrystal with sizes between 15 and 110 nm could be prepared in a process that avoids any treatment with high shear forces or ultrasonication. The number of nanocrystals per seed, the size of the seeds, and the shell thickness can be independently adjusted. Single encapsulated nanocrystals in ultrasmall nanobeads as well as clusters of nanocrystals can be obtained. Polysorbat-80 was used as surfactant. It consists of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) chains, giving the particles outstanding biofunctional characteristics such as a minimization of unspecific interactions.     

Epitaxial growth of heterogeneous metal nanocrystals: from gold nano-octahedra to palladium and silver nanocubes

With octahedral Au nanocrystals as seeds, highly monodisperse Au@Pd and Au@Ag core-shell nanocubes were synthesized by a two-step seed-mediated method in aqueous solution. Accordingly, we have preliminarily proposed a general rule that the atomic radius, bond dissociation energy, and electronegativity of the core and shell metals play key roles in determining the conformal epitaxial layered growth mode.     

Seed‐Mediated and Iodide‐Assisted Synthesis of Gold Nanocrystals with Systematic Shape Evolution from Rhombic Dodecahedral to Octahedral Structures

We report the development of a seed‐mediated and iodide‐assisted method for the synthesis of monodisperse gold nanocrystals with systematic shape evolution from rhombic dodecahedral to octahedral structures. Particle growth is complete in 15 min at room temperature, so the process is fast and energy‐efficient. By progressively increasing the volume of KI used in a growth solution while keeping the amount of ascorbic acid added constant, nanocrystals with morphologies that vary from rhombic dodecahedral to rhombicuboctahedral, edge‐ and corner‐truncated octahedral, corner‐truncated octahedral, and octahedral structures were synthesized. The nanocrystals are monodisperse in size and readily form self‐assembled structures on substrates. By simply adjusting the volume of gold seed solution added to a growth solution, particle sizes of the octahedral gold nanocrystals can be tuned with average opposite corner‐to‐corner distances of 42, 48, 54, 60, 68, 93, 107, and 125 nm. In the presence of HAuCl₄, iodide may act as a reducing agent. Variation of its volume in the solution may slightly modulate the reduction rate and affect the final crystal morphology. Intermediate structures collected during crystal growth reveal the presence of many twisted structures that surround a developing nanocrystal core. This nanocrystal growth mechanism and the less important role of surfactant in directing the polyhedral nanocrystal morphology is discussed.     

Synthesis of Cu2O nanocrystals from cubic to rhombic dodecahedral structures and their comparative photocatalytic activity

In this study, a new series of Cu(2)O nanocrystals with systematic shape evolution from cubic to face-raised cubic, edge- and corner-truncated octahedral, all-corner-truncated rhombic dodecahedral, {100}-truncated rhombic dodecahedral, and rhombic dodecahedral structures have been synthesized. The average sizes for the cubes, edge- and corner-truncated octahedra, {100}-truncated rhombic dodecahedra, and rhombic dodecahedra are approximately 200, 140, 270, and 290 nm, respectively. An aqueous mixture of CuCl(2), sodium dodecyl sulfate, NaOH, and NH(2)OH·HCl was prepared to produce these nanocrystals at room temperature. Simple adjustment of the amounts of NH(2)OH·HCl introduced enables this particle shape evolution. These novel particle morphologies have been carefully analyzed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The solution color changes quickly from blue to green, yellow, and then orange within 1 min of reaction in the formation of nanocubes, while such color change takes 10-20 min in the growth of rhombic dodecahedra. TEM examination confirmed the rapid production of nanocubes and a substantially slower growth rate for the rhombic dodecahedra. The rhombic dodecahedra exposing only the {110} facets exhibit an exceptionally good photocatalytic activity toward the fast and complete photodegradation of methyl orange due to a high number density of surface copper atoms, demonstrating the importance of their successful preparation. They may serve as effective and cheap catalysts for other photocatalytic reactions and organic coupling 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.     

Quantitative Analysis of the Reduction Kinetics of a Pt(Ⅱ) Precursor in the Context of Pt Nanocrystal Synthesis?

In this letter, we report a quantitative analysis of how a Pt(Ⅱ) precursor is reduced to atoms at different temperatures for the formation of Pt nanocrystals with different morphologies and sizes. Our results suggest that in the early stage of a synthesis, the Pt(Ⅱ) precursor is reduced to atoms exclusively in the solution phase, followed by homogeneous nucleation to generate nuclei and then seeds. At a relatively low reaction temperature such as 22℃, the growth of the seeds is dominated by autocatalytic surface reduction that involves the adsorption and then reduction of the Pt(Ⅱ) precursor on the surface of the just-formed seeds. This particular growth pathway results in relatively large assemblies of Pt nanocrystals. When the reaction temperature is increased to 100℃, the dominant reduction pathway will be switched from surface to solution phase, producing much smaller assemblies of Pt nanocrystals. Our results also demonstrate that a similar trend applies to the seed-mediated growth of Pt nanocrystals in the presence of Pd nanocubes.     

Synthesis of 10 nm β‐NaYF4:Yb,Er/NaYF4 Core/Shell Upconversion Nanocrystals with 5 nm Particle Cores

A new method is presented for preparing gram amounts of very small core/shell upconversion nanocrystals without additional codoping of the particles. First, ca. 5 nm β‐NaYF₄:Yb,Er core particles are formed by the reaction of sodium oleate, rare‐earth oleate, and ammonium fluoride, thereby making use of the fact that a high ratio of sodium to rare‐earth ions promotes the nucleation of a large number of β‐phase seeds. Thereafter, a 2 nm thick NaYF₄ shell is formed by using 3–4 nm particles of α‐NaYF₄ as a single‐source precursor for the β‐phase shell material. In contrast to the core particles, however, these α‐phase particles are prepared with a low ratio of sodium to rare‐earth ions, which efficiently suppresses an undesired nucleation of β‐NaYF₄ particles during shell growth.     

Control of Regioselectivity over Gold Nanocrystals of Different Surfaces for the Synthesis of 1,4‐Disubstituted Triazole through the Click Reaction

Gold nanocubes, octahedra, and rhombic dodecahedra were examined for facet‐dependent catalytic activity in the formation of triazoles. Rhombic dodecahedra gave 100 % regioselective 1,4‐triazoles. The product yield was increased by decreasing the particle size. However, a mixture of 1,4‐ and 1,5‐triazoles was obtained in lower yields when cubes and octahedra of similar sizes were used. The lowest Au‐atom density on the {110} surface and largest unsaturated coordination number of surface Au atoms may explain their best catalytic efficiency and product regioselectivity. Various spectroscopic techniques were employed to verify the formation of the Au–acetylide intermediate and establish the reaction mechanism, in which phenylacetylene binds to the Au {110} surface through the terminal‐binding mode to result in the exclusive formation of 1,4‐triazoles. The smallest rhombic dodecahedra can give diverse 1,4‐disubstituted triazoles in good yields by coupling a wide variety of alkynes and organic halides.     

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.