Abstract
The crystal phase-based heterostructures of noble metal nanomaterials are of great research interest for various applications, such as plasmonics and catalysis. However, the synthesis of unusual crystal phases of noble metals still remains a great challenge, making the construction of heterophase noble metal nanostructures difficult. Here, we report a one-pot wet-chemical synthesis of well-defined heterophase fcc-2H-fcc gold nanorods (fcc: face-centred cubic; 2H: hexagonal close-packed with stacking sequence of “AB”) at mild conditions. Single particle-level experiments and theoretical investigations reveal that the heterophase gold nanorods demonstrate a distinct optical property compared to that of the conventional fcc gold nanorods. Moreover, the heterophase gold nanorods possess superior electrocatalytic activity for the carbon dioxide reduction reaction over their fcc counterparts under ambient conditions. First-principles calculations suggest that the boosted catalytic performance stems from the energetically favourable adsorption of reaction intermediates, endowed by the unique heterophase characteristic of gold nanorods.
Highlights
The crystal phase-based heterostructures of noble metal nanomaterials are of great research interest for various applications, such as plasmonics and catalysis
As a proof-of-concept application, we find that the heterophase fcc-2H-fcc Au NRs exhibit much greater electrocatalytic activity compared to the fcc Au NRs and Au NPs in the CO2RR
The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) core level spectrum of the Au 4f doublet confirms the metallic state of Au in the fcc-2H-fcc Au NRs (Supplementary Fig. 1)
Summary
The crystal phase-based heterostructures of noble metal nanomaterials are of great research interest for various applications, such as plasmonics and catalysis. It remains difficult to synthesize noble metal nanomaterials with unusual crystal phase compared to their conventional thermodynamically stable phase. The high-yield synthesis of 2H and 2H-based Au nanomaterials is yet to be realized, restraining the exploration of their intriguing properties and potential applications Owing to their unique optical property, distinct electronic structure, good biocompatibility and extraordinary stability, noble metal nanomaterials possess diverse applications in plasmonics[23], catalysis[14,15,16,18,24,25], biosensing[26] and in vivo therapy[27].
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