Journal
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
Volume 6, Issue 15, Pages 12505-12514Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/am502358g
Keywords
Supersaturation; Hematite; Shape evolution; CO catalysis; Gas sensing
Funding
- National Basic Research Program of China [2011CBA00508, 2013CB933901]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [21171142, 21131005, 21333008, 21371144]
- program for New Century Excellent Talents in University [NCET-11-0294]
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Surface engineering of crystals at nanoscale level by precisely and rationally exposing specific facets proved to be highly effective in enhancing the performance of inorganic functional nanocrystals. To do so, a comprehensive understanding of the growth mechanism was of great importance. By using hematite (alpha-Fe2O3) as an example, in this paper we demonstrated high effectiveness of controlling supersaturation of growth monomers in engineering the exposed facets of nanocrystals. Under surfactant-free hydrothermal conditions, a series of morphology evolution of alpha-Fe2O3 nanocrystals from {012} faceted pseudocubes to {113} faceted hexagonal bipyramids and {001} faceted nanoplates were successfully activated through concentration-, reaction time-, and solvent-dependent hydrolysis of ferric acetylacetonate. High supersaturation was eventually proven to be conducive to the formation of facets with high surface energy. Furthermore, the alpha-Fe2O3 nanocrystals enclosed with facets of high surface energy exhibited excellent catalytic activity and gas-sensing ability. The present work will deepen our understanding of thermodynamics and kinetic control over the morphology of nanocrystals as well as our understanding of surface-related performance of inorganic functional nanocrystals.
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