Structural evolution of gold nanorods during controlled secondary growth

Single-crystalline gold nanorods synthesized by the Ag(I)-mediated seeded-growth method (see: El-Sayed, M. A.; Nikoobakht, B. Chem. Mater. 2003, 15, 1957) were used as seeds for the preferential overgrowth of gold on particular crystallographic facets by systematic variation of the conditions during overgrowth. The results support previous reports about the relevance of the cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and Ag(I) in stabilizing anisotropic particle shapes and demonstrate that the regulation of the amount of ascorbic acid facilitates the preferential overgrowth of {111} crystal facets to form Xi-type particle shapes. Interestingly, secondary overgrowth is found to inevitably result in a loss of particle shape anisotropy. A mechanism based on surface reconstruction is proposed to rationalize the "shape-reversal" that is generally observed in the nanorod growth process, that is, the initial increase and subsequent decrease of particle anisotropy with increasing reaction time. High-resolution electron microscopy analysis of gold nanorods reveals clear evidence for (1 x 2) missing row surface reconstruction of high energetic {110} facets that form during the initial phase during particle growth.