Real-Time In Situ Observations Reveal a Double Role for Ascorbic Acid in the Anisotropic Growth of Silver on GoldClick to copy article linkArticle link copied!
- Kinanti AliyahKinanti AliyahUniversité Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, 91405 Orsay, FranceMore by Kinanti Aliyah
- Jieli LyuJieli LyuUniversité Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, 91405 Orsay, FranceMore by Jieli Lyu
- Claire GoldmannClaire GoldmannUniversité Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, 91405 Orsay, FranceMore by Claire Goldmann
- Thomas Bizien
- Cyrille Hamon*Cyrille HamonUniversité Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, 91405 Orsay, FranceMore by Cyrille Hamon
- Damien Alloyeau*Damien AlloyeauLaboratoire Matériaux et Phénomènes Quantiques, Université de Paris - CNRS, F-75013 Paris, FranceMore by Damien Alloyeau
- Doru Constantin*Doru ConstantinUniversité Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, 91405 Orsay, FranceMore by Doru Constantin
Abstract

Rational nanoparticle design is one of the main goals of materials science, but it can only be achieved via a thorough understanding of the growth process and of the respective roles of the molecular species involved. We demonstrate that a combination of complementary techniques can yield novel information with respect to their individual contributions. We monitored the growth of long aspect ratio silver rods from gold pentatwinned seeds by three in situ techniques (small-angle X-ray scattering, optical extinction spectroscopy and liquid-cell transmission electron microscopy). Exploiting the difference in reaction speed between the bulk synthesis and the nanoparticle formation in the TEM cell, we show that the anisotropic growth is thermodynamically controlled (rather than kinetically) and that ascorbic acid, widely used for its mild reductive properties, plays a shape-directing role, by stabilizing the {100} facets of the silver cubic lattice, in synergy with the halide ions. This approach can easily be applied to a wide variety of synthesis strategies.
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