Directed Surface Overgrowth and Morphology Control of Polyhedral Gold Nanocrystals

Shapeshifters: The shape and size of gold nanocrystals were controlled simultaneously through directed surface overgrowth from polyhedral and spherical seeds of different sizes. The resulting cubes, cuboctahedra, and octahedra (shown as SEM images for growth from spherical seeds of two sizes) exhibited characteristic optical properties in the visible range, which were analyzed by discrete dipole approximation calculations.