Defect‐Directed Growth of Symmetrically Branched Metal Nanocrystals

Branched plasmonic nanocrystals (NCs) have attracted much attention due to electric field enhancements at their tips. Seeded growth provides routes to NCs with defined branching patterns and, in turn, near‐field distributions with defined symmetries. Here, a systematic analysis was undertaken in whi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2020-01, Vol.59 (2), p.943-950
Main Authors: Smith, Joshua D., Bladt, Eva, Burkhart, Joseph A. C., Winckelmans, Naomi, Koczkur, Kallum M., Ashberry, Hannah M., Bals, Sara, Skrabalak, Sara E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
alloys
Crystal defects
crystal growth
Crystals
Electric fields
Morphology
Nanocrystals
nanoparticles
plasmon
Seeds
strain
Surface energy
Surface properties
Volumetric strain
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Summary:Branched plasmonic nanocrystals (NCs) have attracted much attention due to electric field enhancements at their tips. Seeded growth provides routes to NCs with defined branching patterns and, in turn, near‐field distributions with defined symmetries. Here, a systematic analysis was undertaken in which seeds containing different distributions of planar defects were used to grow branched NCs in order to understand how their distributions direct the branching. Characterization of the products by multimode electron tomography and analysis of the NC morphologies at different overgrowth stages indicate that the branching patterns are directed by the seed defects, with the emergence of branches from the seed faces consistent with minimizing volumetric strain energy at the expense of surface energy. These results contrast with growth of branched NCs from single‐crystalline seeds and provide a new platform for the synthesis of symmetrically branched plasmonic NCs. Branched metal nanocrystals are exciting platforms in many applications. A new seeded‐growth principle is presented where branches extend from the faces of defect‐rich seeds, thus revealing that the evolution of defect‐rich seeds to branched structures is a balancing act between surface energy and volumetric strain energy.
ISSN:1433-7851
1521-3773
DOI:10.1002/anie.201913301