Nanoparticle synthesis articles within Nature Communications

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  • Perspective
    | Open Access

    Considerable attention has been directed towards chiral nanocatalysts due to their significant role in facilitating asymmetric organic transformations. Here the authors highlight the recent advancements and notable examples in the field of chiral inorganic nanocatalysts.

    • Si Li
    • , Xinxin Xu
    •  & Chuanlai Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Solid-phase synthesis strategy is promising for fabricating desired complex metal nanoparticles on supports. Here, the authors synthesize CoFe@FeOx core-shell nanoparticles as the separator coatings via precise solid-phase method which effectively regulates polysulfides for lithium/ sodium-sulfur batteries.

    • Yanping Chen
    • , Yu Yao
    •  & Jian Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photon upconversion with near-infrared excitation and ultraviolet emission has many applications, but suffers from low quantum efficiency. Here, the authors report a six-photon upconversion process in nanoparticles with heterogeneous core-multishell structure, that regulate the energy transfer pathway.

    • Qianqian Su
    • , Han-Lin Wei
    •  & Dayong Jin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Light-driven heating of plasmonic metal nanoparticles can activate temperature-sensitive reactions at the nanoscale. Here, the authors exploit such nanoscale plasmonic reactors to drive, control, and spectroscopically track the growth of single metal@semiconductor core@shell nanoparticles.

    • Rifat Kamarudheen
    • , Gayatri Kumari
    •  & Andrea Baldi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The ability to discover and optimise the synthesis of inorganic nanomaterials has significant impact on various fields, from sensing to medicine. Here, the authors use a genetic algorithm to drive a robotic platform toward a pre-defined, spectroscopic goal in order to discover and optimise the conditions for several nanoparticle shapes.

    • Daniel Salley
    • , Graham Keenan
    •  & Leroy Cronin

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    Insufficient purification and incomplete characterization pose a serious problem for attributing photoluminescence properties to carbogenic nanodots, especially those synthesized by bottom-up approaches. Here, we provide a roadmap for the successful future of these nanodots.

    • Navneet C. Verma
    • , Aditya Yadav
    •  & Chayan K. Nandi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    At nanoscale, it is synthetically very difficult to increase the structural complexity of hollow structures. Here, the authors use a stepwise liquid templating strategy to build, assemble, and interconnect fullerene hollow nanostructures, just like the synthetic freedom one could have with pottery.

    • Fei Han
    • , Ruoxu Wang
    •  & Hongyu Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding the growth pathway of faceted alloy nanoparticles at the atomic level is crucial to morphology control and property tuning, but remains a challenge. Here, the authors reveal the particle growth and facet formation mechanisms of octahedral Pt3Ni nanoparticles using multiple cutting-edge in situ techniques.

    • Xiaochen Shen
    • , Changlin Zhang
    •  & Zhenmeng Peng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Gold nanoclusters are known to grow stepwise from gold-thiolate monomers and oligomers. Here, the authors find that the evolution of silver nanoclusters differs completely from that of gold: rather than following a bottom-up pathway, the clusters evolve from similarly-sized Ag-thiolate cluster intermediates.

    • Yitao Cao
    • , Jiahao Guo
    •  & Tierui Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Reactions in aqueous microdroplets can significantly differ from those in bulk. Here, the authors report microdroplets that not only accelerate gold nanoparticle formation by several orders of magnitude but also promote spontaneous nanostructure formation with no reducing agents or template.

    • Jae Kyoo Lee
    • , Devleena Samanta
    •  & Richard N. Zare

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Although near-infrared light makes up a large portion of the solar spectrum, harvesting it for photocatalytic applications remains challenging. Here the authors deposit unidirectional Au@Nb core-shell nanoparticles into tubular H x K1–xNbO3 nanoscrolls and report cooperative full solar spectrum absorption.

    • Ying-Chu Chen
    • , Yu-Kuei Hsu
    •  & Claus Feldmann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Little is understood about the chemical evolution of precursors to quantum dots. Here, the authors find that under the high temperature conditions typical of CdSe quantum dot synthesis, precursors decompose into highly reactive species in a critical first step before forming monomers and finally nanocrystals.

    • Leah C. Frenette
    •  & Todd D. Krauss

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Doping metal nanoclusters at specific sites is a powerful strategy for tuning their properties. Here, the authors precisely control the alloying sites of bimetallic nanoclusters by replacing entire surface motifs with structurally similar heteroatom motifs, tuning the surface composition motif-by-motif rather than atom-by-atom.

    • Qiaofeng Yao
    • , Yan Feng
    •  & Jianping Xie

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Control over nanoparticle atomicity has not yet been extended to metal oxides. Here, the authors present the synthesis and X-ray crystal structures of a family of atomically precise ceria nanoclusters, a pivotal step for understanding the relationship between their atomic structure and reactivity.

    • Kylie J. Mitchell
    • , Khalil A. Abboud
    •  & George Christou

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Owing to their unique properties, hollow metal nanocrystals demonstrate greater catalytic promise than their solid counterparts. Here the authors produce hollow and inflated palladium nanocrystals with thin shells via a repeated Kirkendall cavitation process, and demonstrate their activity for formic acid oxidation.

    • He Tianou
    • , Weicong Wang
    •  & Yadong Yin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hollow nanoparticles can be synthesized by galvanic replacement or the Kirkendall effect, which are generally regarded as two separate processes. Here, the authors use liquid TEM to follow the entire galvanic replacement of Ag nanocubes, finding experimental evidence that the Kirkendall effect is a key intermediate stage during hollowing.

    • See Wee Chee
    • , Shu Fen Tan
    •  & Utkur Mirsaidov

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Synthetic nanochemistry currently lacks the molecular step-by-step routes afforded to organic chemistry by total synthesis. Here, the authors track the seeded growth of atom-precise gold nanoclusters using mass spectrometry, revealing that the clusters evolve through a series of intermediates in two-electron steps.

    • Qiaofeng Yao
    • , Xun Yuan
    •  & Jianping Xie

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Doping a metal nanocluster with heteroatoms dramatically changes its properties, but it remains difficult to dope with single-atom control. Here, the authors devise a strategy to dope single atoms of Ag or Cu into hollow Au nanoclusters, creating precise alloy nanoparticles atom-by-atom.

    • Shuxin Wang
    • , Hadi Abroshan
    •  & Rongchao Jin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    CdSe/CdS tetrapods exhibit the unusual trait of two-colour multiexcitonic emission. Here Mishraet al. study this type of dual emission at the single-nanocrystal level. By tuning arm diameter and length they seek to understand shape-dependent evolution of the emission and of blinking behaviour.

    • Nimai Mishra
    • , Noah J. Orfield
    •  & Jennifer A. Hollingsworth

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