Gas-assisted transformation of gold from fcc to the metastable 4H phase

Shaobo Han, Guang-Jie Xia, Chao Cai, Qi Wang, Yang-Gang Wang (), Meng Gu () and Jun Li
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Shaobo Han: Southern University of Science and Technology
Guang-Jie Xia: Southern University of Science and Technology
Chao Cai: Southern University of Science and Technology
Qi Wang: Southern University of Science and Technology
Yang-Gang Wang: Southern University of Science and Technology
Meng Gu: Southern University of Science and Technology
Jun Li: Southern University of Science and Technology

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract The metastable hexagonal 4H-phase gold has recently attracted extensive interest due to its exceptional performance in catalysis. However, gold usually crystallizes to its lowest free energy structure called face-centered cubic (fcc). The phase transformation from the stable fcc phase to the metastable 4H phase is thus of great significance in crystal phase engineering. Herein, we report this unusual phenomenon on a 4H gold nanorod template with the aid of CO gas and an electron beam. In situ transmission electron microscopy was used to directly visualize the interface propagation kinetics between the 4H-Au-nanorod and fcc-Au nanoparticle. Epitaxial growth was initiated at the contact interface, and then propagated to convert all parts of these fcc nanoparticles to 4H phase. Density functional theory calculations and ab initio molecular dynamics simulations show that the CO molecules can assist the Au diffusion process and promote the flexibility of Au particles during the epitaxial growth. The phase transformation was driven by the reduction of Gibbs free energy by eliminating the interface between fcc and 4H phases.

Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-14212-z

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