title: Probing nucleation pathways for morphological manipulation of platinum nanocrystals.
abstract: Understanding the formation process in the controlled synthesis of nanocrystals will lead to the effective manipulation of the morphologies and properties of nanomaterials. Here, in-situ UV-vis and X-ray absorption spectroscopies are combined to monitor the tracks of the nucleation pathways in the solution synthesis of platinum nanocrystals. We find experimentally that the control over nucleation pathways through changing the strength of reductants can be efficiently used to manipulate the resultant nanocrystal shapes. The in-situ measurements show that two different nucleation events involving the formation of one-dimensional "Pt(n)Cl(x)" complexes from the polymerization of linear "Cl(3)Pt-PtCl(3)" dimers and spherical "Pt(n)(0)" clusters from the aggregation of Pt(0) atoms occur for the cases of weak and strong reductants; and the resultant morphologies are nanowires and nanospheres, respectively. This study provides a crucial insight into the correlation between the particle shapes and nucleation pathways of nanomaterials.
authors.affiliation: National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.forename: Shoujie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Zhihu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Yuanyuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Shi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Qinghua
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Ziyu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Zhiyun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Wensheng
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Shiqiang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wei