Facet- and Gas-Dependent Reshaping of Au Nanoplates by Plasma Treatment.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 34114456.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1021/acsnano.1c00861 and PMC identifier 8223482.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The reshaping of metal nanocrystals on substrates is usually realized by pulsed laser irradiation or ion-beam milling with complex procedures. In this work, we demonstrate a simple method for reshaping immobilized Au nanoplates through plasma treatment. Au nanoplates can be reshaped gradually with nearly periodic right pyramid arrays formed on the surface of the nanoplates. The gaseous environment in the plasma-treatment system plays a significant role in the reshaping process with only nitrogen-containing environments leading to reshaping. The reshaping phenomenon is facet-dependent, with right pyramids formed only on the exposed {111} facets of the Au nanoplates. The morphological change of the Au nanoplates induced by the plasma treatment leads to large plasmon peak redshifts. The reshaped Au nanoplates possess slightly higher refractive index sensitivities and largely increased surface-enhanced Raman scattering intensities compared to the flat, untreated nanoplates. Our results offer insights for studying the interaction mechanism between plasma and the different facets of noble metal nanocrystals and an approach for reshaping light-interacting noble metal nanocrystals.