Hydrogen Promotes the Growth of Platinum Pyramidal Nanocrystals by Size-Dependent Symmetry Breaking.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 36995102.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c04982 and PMC identifier 10103309.
- 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 pyramidal platinum nanocrystals is studied by a combination of synthesis/characterization experiments and density functional theory calculations. It is shown that the growth of pyramidal shapes is due to a peculiar type of symmetry breaking, which is caused by the adsorption of hydrogen on the growing nanocrystals. Specifically, the growth of pyramidal shapes is attributed to the size-dependent adsorption energies of hydrogen atoms on {100} facets, whose growth is hindered only if they are sufficiently large. The crucial role of hydrogen adsorption is further confirmed by the absence of pyramidal nanocrystals in experiments where the reduction process does not involve hydrogen.