Selective Heteroepitaxial Nanocrystal Growth of Rare Earth Fluorides on Sodium Chloride: Synthesis and Density Functional Calculations

Selective growth: Instead of forming core–shell structures with NaCl, NaYF4 was found to grow at the eight corners of the NaCl nanocubes, thereby forming an eight-in-one cage structure. Density functional calculations reveal that facet selectivity is determined by the interfacial energy, which is decided by anion compulsion and the coordination numbers of interfacial Y3+ ions. Detailed facts of importance to specialist readers are published as ”Supporting Information”. Such documents are peer-reviewed, but not copy-edited or typeset. They are made available as submitted by the authors. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.