Facile synthesis of high-purity single-twinned Au nanocrystals through manipulation of reaction kinetics

Abstract

While Au nanocrystals (NCs) with a myriad of shapes have been successfully prepared with good uniformity and in high yield, Au right bipyramids (RBPs) with a single-twinned structure have been elusive. For the first time, we report a facile route for the synthesis of truncated Au RBPs with shape purity >90% and sizes controlled in the range of 15–50 nm. The success of our synthesis relies on the use of an appropriate precursor to manipulate the reaction kinetics. The as-prepared truncated RBPs could serve as seeds to generate bimetallic NCs with single-twinned structures.