Facile synthesis of morphology-controlled platinum nanocrystals

A solution-phase chemical approach for the preparation of complex 3D porous flowerlike dendritic- and polypod-like, as well as multibranched Pt nanostructures by direct thermolytic reduction of trans-Pt(NH3) 2Cl2 was investigated. The chemical composition, structure, and morphology of the obtained nanostructures were characterized using EDA analysis, p-XRD, and TEM. The obtained 3D Pt nanostructures have additional advantages over the conventional spherical nanoparticles. The crystal surface reactivity was identified as the main driving force for the growth of anistropic nanostructures. The reported porous Pt nanostructures were not able to survive in the heat annealing process because of Ostwald ripening. The observed absence of the Ostwald ripening process is not unusual in the annealing process of colloidal metal nanocrystals because most nanocrystals do not dissolve in the reaction solvent system.