Open AccessOrientation Selection during Heterogeneous Nucleation: Implications for Heterogeneous Catalysis
Author(s) -
Dipanwita Chatterjee,
R. Akash,
K. Kamalnath,
Rafia Ahmad,
Abhishek K. Singh,
N. Ravishankar
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of physical chemistry. c./journal of physical chemistry. c
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.401
H-Index - 289
eISSN - 1932-7455
pISSN - 1932-7447
DOI - 10.1021/acs.jpcc.7b02237
Subject(s) - nucleation , chemical physics , substrate (aquarium) , materials science , particle (ecology) , orientation (vector space) , nanotechnology , catalysis , chemistry , biochemistry , geometry , mathematics , organic chemistry , oceanography , geology
Hybrids based on supported nanoparticles are used for many applications such as catalysis and sensing. It is well-known that the size and shape of the particles and: their interaction with the substrate play a key role in controlling the properties, of the hybrid. Here, we show that in addition to these commonly considered effects, the orientation Of the partide,on the:substrate could play a critical role that could dominate over the other effects. For the same nominal size of the particle, changes in its orientation on the substrate lead, to dramatic changes in the accessible, surface, area and the electronic structure, Thus profoundly affecting the properties. Using analytical calculations, we show that the orientation of the crystal, heterogeneously nucleating on; substrate, is determined by the, barrier for nucleation and experimentally demonstrate that it is possible to tune. this orientation by tuning the interfacial energy between the, nucleus and substrate. Our study provides some fundamentally new insights into the process, of heterogeneous nucleation, that can be exploited for practical applications