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An understanding of how facets of a nanocrystal develop is critical for controlling nanocrystal shape and designing novel functional materials. However, the atomic pathways of nanocrystal facet development are mostly unknown because of the lack of direct observation. We report the imaging of platinum nanocube growth in a liquid cell using transmission electron microscopy with high spatial and temporal resolution. The growth rates of all low index facets are similar until the 100 facets stop growth. The continuous growth of the rest facets leads to a nanocube. Our calculation shows that the much lower ligand mobility on the 100 facets is responsible for the arresting of 100 growing facets. These findings shed light on nanocrystal shape-control mechanisms and future design of nanomaterials.
Liao et al. (2014) studied this question.