Morphology and structure controlled synthesis of ruthenium nanoparticles in oleylamine

Abstract

Mastery over the morphology/structure of nanoparticles enables control of their properties and enhancement of their usefulness for a given application. Herein, we report a systematic study on the synthesis of ruthenium nanoparticles in oleylamine, including the tuning of their morphology/shape by temperature or by seed-mediated growth. A phase-transfer based strategy for the fabrication of the Ru nanoparticles with hollow interiors has also been demonstrated in this work, which involves the phase transfer of the core–shell Ag–Ru nanoparticles prepared in oleylamine from organic solvent to aqueous phase and the subsequent removal of Ag cores from the core–shell nanoparticles by reacting with NaCl. This approach enables the synthesis of hollow structured Ru nanoparticles in a single aqueous phase, and avoids the use of expensive chemical reagents. Both of them are favorable for the large-scale synthesis of Ru nanoparticles with hollow interiors.