One-pot synthesis of corolla-shaped gold nanostructures with (110) planes.

In this work, corolla-shaped gold nanostructures with (110) planes were successfully synthesized using ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as the co-reductants and shape-directing agents. The structure and the mechanism of the nanostructures were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and electrochemical characterization. On the basis that surface energies of different gold crystallographic planes are in the order (111) < (100) < (110), the (110) plane has the highest surface energy among the low-index planes. The gold nanocrystals with exposed high-energy planes are important in facilitating their potential applications such as highly efficient catalysts. This research is of great significance for the subsequent work on the synthesis of nanocrystals dominated by high-energy crystal planes.