Unexpectedly high thermal stability of Au nanotriangle@mSiO₂ yolk-shell nanoparticles

The shape of Au nanoparticles (NPs) plays a crucial role for applications in, amongst others, catalysis, electronic devices, biomedicine, and sensing. Typically, the deformation of the morphology of Au NPs is the most significant cause of loss of functionality. Here, we systematically investigate the thermal stability of Au nanotriangles (NTs) coated with (mesoporous) silica shells with different morphologies (core-shell (CS): Au NT@mSiO₂/yolk-shell (YS): Au NT@mSiO₂) and compare these to 'bare' nanoparticles (Au NTs), by a combination of in situ and/or ex situ TEM techniques and spectroscopy methods. Au NTs with a mesoporous silica (mSiO₂) coating were found to show much higher thermal stability than those without a mSiO₂ coating, as the mSiO₂ shell restricts the (self-)diffusion of surface atoms. For the Au NT@mSiO₂ CS and YS NPs, a thicker mSiO₂ shell provides better protection than uncoated Au NTs. Surprisingly, the Au NT@mSiO₂ YS NPs were found to be as stable as Au NT@mSiO₂ CS NPs with a core-shell morphology. We hypothesize that the only explanation for this unexpected finding was the thicker and higher density SiO₂ shell of YS NPs that prevents diffusion of Au surface atoms to more thermodynamically favorable positions.