A reasonable approach for the generation of hollow icosahedral kernels in metal nanoclusters.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 34702816.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-26528-w and PMC identifier 8548331.
- 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
Although the hollow icosahedral M<sub>12</sub> kernel has been extensively observed in metal nanoclusters, its origin remains a mystery. Here we report a reasonable avenue for the generation of the hollow icosahedron: the kernel collapse from several small nano-building blocks to an integrated hollow icosahedron. On the basis of the Au alloying processes from Ag<sub>28</sub>Cu<sub>12</sub>(SR)<sub>24</sub> to the template-maintained Au<sub>x</sub>Ag<sub>28-x</sub>Cu<sub>12</sub>(SR)<sub>24</sub> and then to the template-transformed Au<sub>12</sub>Cu<sub>y</sub>Ag<sub>32-y</sub>(SR)<sub>30</sub>, the kernel evolution/collapse from "tetrahedral Ag<sub>4</sub> + 4<sup>∗</sup>Ag<sub>3</sub>" to "tetrahedral Au<sub>4</sub> + 4<sup>∗</sup>M<sub>3</sub> (M = Au/Ag)" and then to "hollow icosahedral Au<sub>12</sub>" is mapped out. Significantly, the "kernel collapse" from small-sized nano-building blocks to large-sized nanostructures not only unveils the formation of hollow icosahedral M<sub>12</sub> in this work, but also might be a very common approach in constructing metallic kernels of nanoclusters and nanoparticles (not limited to the M<sub>12</sub> structure).