Nanoscience research has become a diverse and prominent field that has applications in many different disciplines on account of the size-dependent characteristics of solids. Bimetallic nanoparticles combine the properties of diverse elements to create multifunctional structures that can have interesting optical and catalytic properties. However, particle morphology is often difficult to control using traditional synthetic methods. Seed mediated co-reduction, a method developed in the Skrabalak lab, addresses this challenge by simultaneously reducing two metal precursors in order to deposit metal onto a small nanostructure, a seed, to produce a desired shape. In this experiment the seeds were Pd nanocubes, with Au and Pd co-reduced to deposit both metals onto the nanostructures. The final results are Au/Pd octopods with eight branches where one branch grows out of each vertex of the nanocube seeds. Although many parameters within this synthesis are well studied, the upper limit of size control is not well established. By changing two parameters: the size of the Pd seeds and the amount of Au/Pd precursors added, octopods of different sizes and branch lengths were synthesized. Through the process of examining the products by electron microscopy and their optical properties by UV-visible spectroscopy, the designing of functional bimetallic nanocrystals can be improved in the future.

Synthesis of Au/Pd octopods by seed-mediated co-reduction: The influence of seed size and metal concentration

248th National Meeting (2014)

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