Heterophase fcc-2H-fcc gold nanorods

作者：Zhanxi Fan, Michel Bosman, Zhiqi Huang, Ye Chen, Chongyi Ling, Lin Wu, Yuriy Akimov, Robert Laskowski, Bo Chen, Peter A. Ercius, Jian Zhang, Xiaoying Qi, Min Hao Goh, Yiyao Ge, Zhicheng Zhang, Wenxin Niu, Jinlan Wang, Haimei Zheng, Hua Zhang · 发表于：Nature Communications · 年份：2020 · DOI：10.1038/s41467-020-17068-w · 被引用次数：160 · 研究领域：Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion、Catalytic Processes in Materials Science、Nanocluster Synthesis and Applications

The crystal phase-based heterostructures of noble metal nanomaterials are of great research interest for various applications, such as plasmonics and catalysis. However, the synthesis of unusual crystal phases of noble metals still remains a great challenge, making the construction of heterophase noble metal nanostructures difficult. Here, we report a one-pot wet-chemical synthesis of well-defined heterophase fcc-2H-fcc gold nanorods (fcc: face-centred cubic; 2H: hexagonal close-packed with stacking sequence of "AB") at mild conditions. Single particle-level experiments and theoretical investigations reveal that the heterophase gold nanorods demonstrate a distinct optical property compared to that of the conventional fcc gold nanorods. Moreover, the heterophase gold nanorods possess superior electrocatalytic activity for the carbon dioxide reduction reaction over their fcc counterparts under ambient conditions. First-principles calculations suggest that the boosted catalytic performance stems from the energetically favourable adsorption of reaction intermediates, endowed by the unique heterophase characteristic of gold nanorods.