Shape selection through epitaxy of supported platinum nanocrystals

• Published in: Nanoscale Vol. 10; no. 48; pp. 22730 - 22736
• Main Authors: Peres, Laurent, Yi, Deliang, Bustos-Rodriguez, Susana, Marcelot, Cécile, Pierrot, Alexandre, Fazzini, Pier-Francesco, Florea, Ileana, Arenal, Raul, Lacroix, Lise-Marie, Warot-Fonrose, Bénédicte, Blon, Thomas, Soulantika, Aikaterini
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Royal Society of Chemistry 13.12.2018
• Subjects: Chemical Sciences
• ISSN: 2040-3364; 2040-3372
• DOI: 10.1039/x0xx00000x

Supported nanocrystals of original shapes are highly desirable for the development of optimized catalysts; however, conventional methods for the preparation of supported catalysts do not allow shape control. In this work, we have synthesized concave platinum nanocubes exposing {110} crystallographic facets at 20 °C. In the presence of a crystallographically oriented Pt(111) support in the reaction medium, the concave nanocubes grow epitaxially on the support, producing macroscopic nanostructured surfaces. Higher reaction temperature produces a mixture of different nanostructures in solution; however, only the nanostructures growing along the 〈111〉 direction are obtained on the Pt(111) support. Therefore, the oriented surface acts as a template for a selective immobilization of specific nanostructures out of a mixture, which can be regarded as an “epitaxial resolution” of an inhomogeneous mixture of nanocrystals. Thus, a judicious choice of the support crystallographic orientation may allow the isolation of original nanostructures that cannot be obtained in a pure form.