More than skin deep: A selective silica coating on the ends and side of gold nanorods enables the successful selective overgrowth of palladium, gold, platinum, and silver on these surfaces. As a result, eight types of unprecedented metal homo‐ and heterostructures are produced.

Catalytic microspheres: A general approach is demonstrated for the facile preparation of mesoporous metal oxide microspheres loaded with noble metal nanoparticles (see TEM image in the picture). Among 18 oxide/noble metal catalysts, TiO(2)/0.1 mol % Pd microspheres showed the highest turnover frequency in NaBH(4) reduction of 4-nitrophenol (see picture).

No abstract

Plasmonic gold nanorods (Au NRs)-copper sulfide heterostructures have recently attracted much attention owing to the synergistically enhanced photothermal properties. However, the facile synthesis and interface tailoring of Au NRs-copper sulfide heterostructures remain a formidable challenge. In this study, the rational design and synthesis of Au NRs-Cu S heterostructures via a one-pot hydrothermal process is reported. Specifically, core-shell and dumbbell-like Au NRs-Cu S heterostructures are obtained with well-controlled interfaces by employing the Au NRs with different aspect ratios. Both core-shell and dumbbell-like Au NRs-Cu S have proven effective as photothermal therapy agents, which offer both high photothermal stability and significant photothermal conversion efficiency up to 62%. The finite-difference time domain simulation results confirm the coupling effect that leads to the enhanced local field as well as the optical absorption at the heterostructure interface. Importantly, these Au NRs-Cu S heterostructures can be compatibly used as an 808 nm laser-driven photothermal therapy agents for the efficient photothermal therapy of cancer cells in vitro. This study will provide new insight into the design of other noble metal-semiconductor heterostructures for a broad range of applications utilizing surface plasmon resonance enhancement phenomena.

Selektiver Bewuchs: Die selektive Beschichtung der Enden und Seiten von Goldnanostäben mit Siliciumdioxid ermöglicht ein gezieltes Überwachsen mit Palladium, Gold, Platin und Silber auf deren Oberfläche. Auf diese Weise wurden acht Arten beispielloser Homo‐ und Heterometallstrukturen erzeugt.