title: Morphological evolution of Cu2O nanocrystals in an acid solution: stability of different crystal planes.
abstract: The morphological evolution of uniform Cu(2)O nanocrystals with different morphologies in a weak acetic acid solution (pH = 3.5) has been studied for cubic, octahedral, rhombic dodecahedral, {100} truncated octahedral, and {110} truncated octahedral nanocrystals. Cu(2)O nanocrystals undergo oxidative dissolution in weak acid solution, but their morphological changes depend on the exposed crystal planes. We found that the stability of Cu(2)O crystal planes in weak acid solution follows the order of {100} ≫ {111} > {110} and determines how the morphology of Cu(2)O nanocrystals evolves. The stable {100} crystal planes remain, and new {100} facets form at the expense of the less stable {111} and {110} crystal planes on the surface of Cu(2)O nanocrystals. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the Cu-O bond on Cu(2)O(100) surface has the shortest bond length. These results clearly exemplify that the morphology of inorganic crystals will evolve with the change of local chemical environment, shedding light on fundamentally understanding the morphological evolution of natural minerals and providing novel insights into the geomimetic synthesis of inorganic materials in the laboratory.
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Hua
authors.forename: Daili
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Shang
authors.forename: Wenhua
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Sujie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Yunsheng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Zhiquan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Jinlong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Weixin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D019342:Acetic Acid / Q000737:chemistry*; D003300:Copper / Q000737:chemistry*; D003460:Crystallization; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry*; D010316:Particle Size; D012996:Solutions; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D012996:Solutions; D003300:Copper; D019342:Acetic Acid; C000520:cuprous oxide