Atomic structure of a seed-sized gold nanoprism.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 35264573.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-022-28829-0 and PMC identifier 8907178.
- 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 growth of nanoparticles along one or two directions leads to anisotropic nanoparticles, but the nucleation (i.e., the formation of small seeds of specific shape) has long been elusive. Here, we show the total structure of a seed-sized Au<sub>56</sub> nanoprism, in which the side Au{100} facets are surrounded by bridging thiolates, whereas the top/bottom {111} facets are capped by phosphine ligands at the corners and Br<sup>-</sup> at the center. The bromide has been proved to be the key to effectively stabilize the Au{111} to fulfill a complete face-centered-cubic core. In femtosecond electron dynamics analysis, the non-evolution of transient absorption spectra of Au<sub>56</sub> is similar to that of larger-sized gold nanoclusters (n > 100), which is ascribed to the completeness of the prismatic Au<sub>56</sub> core and an effective electron relaxation pathway created by the stronger Au-Au bonds inside. This work provides some insights for the understanding of plasmonic nanoprism formation.