title: Symmetry breaking during seeded growth of nanocrystals.
abstract: Currently, most of the reported noble-metal nanocrystals are limited to a high level of symmetry, as constrained by the inherent, face-centered cubic (fcc) lattice of these metals. In this paper, we report, for the first time, a facile and versatile approach (backed up by a clear mechanistic understanding) for breaking the symmetry of an fcc lattice and thus obtaining nanocrystals with highly unsymmetrical shapes. The key strategy is to induce and direct the growth of nanocrystal seeds into unsymmetrical modes by manipulating the reduction kinetics. With silver as an example, we demonstrated that the diversity of possible shapes taken by noble-metal nanocrystals could be greatly expanded by incorporating a series of new shapes drastically deviated from the fcc lattice. This work provides a new method to investigate shape-controlled synthesis of metal nanocrystal.
authors.affiliation: The Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, School of Chemistry & Biochemistry and School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology , Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA.
authors.forename: Xiaohu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.forename: Younan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xia
mesh_terms: D007700:Kinetics; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D008670:Metals / Q000737:chemistry; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning / Q000379:methods; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission / Q000379:methods; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry; D012834:Silver / Q000737:chemistry*; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D008670:Metals; D011108:Polymers; D012834:Silver