Sharp cubic and octahedral morphologies of poly(vinylpyrrolidone)-stabilised platinum nanoparticles by polyol method in ethylene glycol: their nucleation, growth and formation mechanisms

Abstract

Pt nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesised by a modified polyol method with the addition of silver nitrate. The results showed that the specific shapes of Pt NPs were influenced by the relevant factors, which are the contents of silver nitrate, synthetic time and temperature. A small content of silver nitrate has played an important role in determining their final shapes of platinum NPs. We observed that Pt NPs in the forms of very sharp shapes such as Pt cubes, octahedrons, cuboctahedrons and tetrahedrons have been obtained. In addition, the shape growth mechanisms and formation of Pt NPs have been studied. They exist in both cubic and octahedral shapes. Importantly, Pt nanocrystals can grow into main cubic and octahedral shapes for a short time less than 15 min. Moreover, Pt nanocrystals can also grow into different shapes from cubic and octahedral into spherical ones for several hours. Especially, they exhibited interesting shapes of multiple-branched Pt nanostructures because of their overgrowth and aggregations. Clearly, large cubic and octahedral Pt NPs of 160 nm diameter were observed. The growth and formation of large cubic and octahedral Pt NPs were due to the aggregation of Pt clusters or initial Pt seeds, even small Pt nanocrystals.