Unravelling Thiol’s Role in Directing Asymmetric Growth of Au Nanorod–Au Nanoparticle Dimers

Jianfeng Huang, Yihan Zhu, Changxu Liu, Zhan Shi, Andrea Fratalocchi*, Yu Han*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

61 Citations (Scopus)

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.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)617-623
Number of pages8
JournalNano Letters
Volume16
Issue number1
Early online date17 Dec 2015
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 13 Jan 2016
Externally publishedYes

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