Ligand-mediated formation of Cu/metal oxide hybrid nanocrystals with tunable number of interfaces

Abstract

Combining domains of different chemical nature within the same hybrid material through the formation of heterojunctions provides the opportunity to exploit the properties of each individual component; furthermore, new synergistic...

Elucidating the structure-dependent selectivity of CuZn towards methane and ethanol in CO2 electroreduction using tailored Cu/ZnO precatalysts

“…They were synthesized via a previously developed seed-mediated approach to obtain tunable spatial configuration of Cu and ZnO domains within the single nano-object. 25,26 Two different sizes of ZnO NCs were used as seeds, namely 13 nm and 60 nm (Fig. S1).…”

“…This potential was chosen to be close to the range where CO2RR normally occurs for Cu-based nano catalysts. 6,26,27 The activated catalysts were characterized by scanning transmission electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (STEM-EDXS), X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and operando X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) measurements (Fig. 2).…”

Synthetic Approaches to Colloidal Nanocrystal Heterostructures Based on Metal and Metal-Oxide Materials

“…The plasmon resonances on the noble metal components were observed to exhibit appreciable frequency shift and/or intensity damping due to the neighbouring dielectric environment [ 99 , 100 , 126 , 256 , 257 , 258 , 263 , 268 , 275 , 276 , 277 , 278 , 279 , 280 , 281 , 282 ]. Also, relevant magnetic parameters deviated from those of the individual magnetic domains [ 216 , 248 , 256 , 257 , 258 , 270 , 283 , 284 , 285 , 286 ], indirectly denoting that interfacial interactions between nonhomologous materials established across CNHSs could affect their electronic properties and, consequently, their ultimate behaviour (e.g., catalytic and hyperthermal properties) [ 99 , 100 , 217 , 256 , 257 , 258 , 259 , 268 , 269 , 276 , 280 , 287 ].…”

“…The degree of reactivity of the seeds critically depends on their size, crystal structure, and geometry (hence, on facet distribution at the surface and local curvature). The relative seed to reactant proportions and temperature govern the size to which the newly implanted materials modules could ultimately develop by regulating the flux of reactive monomer approaching their surfaces [ 217 , 270 , 271 , 272 , 285 , 287 ].…”

“…On the other hand, bigger nanocrystal seeds, which generally offer equivalent sets of larger stabilized facets, can accommodate simultaneous deposition events at several locations, where nucleation is kinetically preferred and/or misfit strain is comparatively lower ( Scheme 1 b). In such cases, hetero-oligomer CNHSs can evolve with flower-like or urchin-like architectures, in which a central nanocrystal domain, corresponding to one of the starting seeds, is connected to multiple “petals” of a foreign material arranged around [ 115 , 249 , 265 , 266 , 271 , 272 , 285 , 286 , 287 , 288 , 289 , 290 , 291 ]. Strategies based on the selection of appropriate surfactants [ 235 , 248 ] or calibrated reducing conditions (e.g., in Ar/H 2 atmosphere [ 286 ]) have been used to either exacerbate or mitigate differences in reactivity among the exposed facets, thus allowing control over the probability density of heterogeneous nucleation over the seeds.…”