(111) Faceted Metal Oxides: A Review of Synthetic Methods

• Published in: Crystal growth & design Vol. 22; no. 10; pp. 6296 - 6322
• Main Authors: Balderas, Raiven I., Ciobanu, Cristian V., Richards, Ryan M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 05.10.2022
• Subjects: crystal structures; MATERIALS SCIENCE; metal oxide facets; synthetic processes
• ISSN: 1528-7483; 1528-7505
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.cgd.2c00409

Material design and synthesis have made tremendous impacts in the scientific community by unleashing a material’s true potential via enhanced properties and applications. Over the years, advanced synthetic strategies have emerged and have been expanded to not only control the size and shape of nanoparticles but also to control the preferential growth of surface facets, paving the way for new materials with facet-dependent properties. Metal oxide (111) facets as compared to their potentially more stable counterpart facets (e.g., (100), (110)) have recently exhibited enriched chemical properties owing to their unique surface arrangement. As a result, metal oxide (111) faceted surfaces have been used in applications such as catalysis, sorbents, batteries, etc. This review aims to provide a perspective on the synthetic processes utilized to expose (111) surfaces and the governing factors/synthetic parameters that expose them across various metal oxides of different crystal structures as well as some of their applications.