title: Unravelling Thiol's Role in Directing Asymmetric Growth of Au Nanorod-Au Nanoparticle Dimers.
abstract: Asymmetric nanocrystals have practical significance in nanotechnologies but present fundamental synthetic challenges. Thiol ligands have proven effective in breaking the symmetric growth of metallic nanocrystals but their exact roles in the synthesis remain elusive. Here, we synthesized an unprecedented Au nanorod-Au nanoparticle (AuNR-AuNP) dimer structure with the assistance of a thiol ligand. On the basis of our experimental observations, we unraveled for the first time that the thiol could cause an inhomogeneous distribution of surface strains on the seed crystals as well as a modulated reduction rate of metal precursors, which jointly induced the asymmetric growth of monometallic dimers.
authors.affiliation: Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center, Physical Sciences and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) , Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Jianfeng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center, Physical Sciences and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) , Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Yihan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: PRIMALIGHT, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Applied Mathematics and Computational Science, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) , Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Changxu
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Inorganic Synthesis and Preparative Chemistry, College of Chemistry, Jilin University , Changchun 130012, China.
authors.forename: Zhan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: PRIMALIGHT, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Applied Mathematics and Computational Science, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) , Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fratalocchi
authors.affiliation: Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center, Physical Sciences and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) , Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Han
mesh_terms: D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry; D008024:Ligands; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D036103:Nanotechnology; D043942:Nanotubes / Q000737:chemistry*; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D013438:Sulfhydryl Compounds / Q000737:chemistry; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance
chemical_list: D008024:Ligands; D011108:Polymers; D013438:Sulfhydryl Compounds; D006046:Gold
keywords: Au nanorod; Thiol-ligand; asymmetric growth; dimer; strain