Revealing the Facet-Selective Electrochemistry That Drives Metal Nanostructure Growth

摘要

Since about 20 years ago, researchers have developed a variety of syntheses to control the morphology of metal nanostructures grown in solution. Control over nanostructure morphology has enabled the optimization of their properties for applications including electrocatalysis, solution-coatable transparent conducting films, conductive composites and plasmonic biosensors. To explain how anisotropic nanostructures can grow from metals with symmetric cubic crystal structures, researchers have often invoked the capping agent hypothesis, which proposes that the organic additives added to nanostructure syntheses are facet-selective in that they block atomic addition to certain facets but not others. However, direct evidence of such facet-selective blocking by organic additives has been lacking.