title: Synergistic Strain Engineering Effect of Hybrid Plasmonic, Catalytic, and Magnetic Core-Shell Nanocrystals.
abstract: Hybrid core-shell nanocrystals, consisting of distinct components, represent an emerging functional material system, which could facilitate synergistic coupling effects via integrating drastically different functionalities. Here we report a unique strain engineering effect induced by phase transformation between plasmonic core and magnetic shell materials, which leads to a facile surface reconstruction of bimetallic core-shell nanocrystals to enhance their synergistic magnetic and catalytic properties. This advancement dramatically results in two orders of magnitude enhancement in magnetic coercivity and significant improvement in catalytic activity. Mechanistic studies involving the kinetic measurement and theoretical modeling uncover a structural distortion and surface rearrangement mechanism during the core-shell phase transformation pathway. This facile methodology could potentially open up the new design of multifunctional artificial hybrid nanostructures by the combination of phase transformation and surface engineering for emerging technological applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Temple University , Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122, United States.
authors.forename: Maogang
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Kansas , Lawrence, Kansas 66047, United States.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics Astronomy and Materials Science, Missouri State University , Springfield, Missouri 65897, United States.
authors.forename: Ridwan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sakidja
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Temple University , Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122, United States.
authors.forename: Shenqiang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ren
keywords: Hybrid nanocrystals; catalysis; core−shell; nanomagnetism