Issue 9, 2015

Redox reaction induced Ostwald ripening for size- and shape-focusing of palladium nanocrystals

Abstract

We report here that size- and shape-focusing can be achieved through the well-known Ostwald ripening process to produce high-quality metal nanocrystals (NCs). Using Pd as an example, we show that the addition of small NCs of appropriate sizes could help in modulating the growth of larger NCs and enable excellent control over both the size and shape uniformity of the products. A detailed mechanistic study showed that the self-focusing of Pd NCs relied on a dissolution and regrowth process induced by redox reaction of HCHO. With the assistance of HCHO, injection of small sacrificial nanocrystals (SNCs), with sizes below a critical value, into larger seeds results in the dissolution of the SNCs and subsequent deposition onto the larger ones, thus allowing the formation of monodisperse Pd NCs. We have identified the critical radius of the SNCs to be ∼5.7 nm for Pd, and verified that SNCs with sizes larger than that could not effectively support the growth of larger seeds. More interestingly, since Ostwald ripening involves matter relocation, this synthetic approach could even break the self-termination growth habits of metal NCs and produce nanocrystals with sizes that are not conveniently accessible by direct growth.

Graphical abstract: Redox reaction induced Ostwald ripening for size- and shape-focusing of palladium nanocrystals

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
17 May 2015
Accepted
18 Jun 2015
First published
18 Jun 2015
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2015,6, 5197-5203

Author version available

Redox reaction induced Ostwald ripening for size- and shape-focusing of palladium nanocrystals

Z. Zhang, Z. Wang, S. He, C. Wang, M. Jin and Y. Yin, Chem. Sci., 2015, 6, 5197 DOI: 10.1039/C5SC01787D

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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