Crystallinity Variation in Seeded Growth of Gold@Silver Core-Shell Nanocrystals: Truncated Right Bipyramids and Their Hollow Derivatives

We report the seeded growth of gold@silver (Au@Ag) core-shell nanocrystals with the shape of truncated right bipyramids (TRB) and their hollow derivatives obtained via a galvanic replacement reaction. In particular, by depositing Ag on single-crystal Au seeds under kinetic control, the resultant Au@Ag core-shell products exhibit planar defects. Morphology and structure characterization is performed to confirm the crystallinity variation and the resultant TRB shape. Considering that elemental Au and Ag have similar lattice constants and negligible lattice mismatch, this phenomenon is quite unique, as the crystallinity of product is typically governed by the seed. The size of final product can be controlled in the range of 37-85 nm by varying the volume of the Au seed solution. In addition, by reacting with gold precursor, the as-prepared Au@Ag TRBs can be converted into Au-based nanostructures with hollow interiors, showing absorbance properties continuously tuned in the visible range, which could find important use in photocatalysis, sensing, and fluorescence enhancement, among others.