Pressure-Induced Phase Engineering of Gold Nanostructures

Although phase engineering of a noble metal, gold (Au), is of critical importance for both fundamental research and potential application, it still remains a big challenge in wet-chemical syntheses. In this work, we report the irreversible transformation from the hexagonal 4H to face-centered cubic (fcc) phase in Au nanoribbons (NRBs) through high pressure treatment, which has not been discovered in metals. The relative percentage of 4H and fcc phases in the recovered Au NRBs depends directly on the peak pressure applied to the original 4H Au NRBs, enabling a phase engineering of Au nanostructures. Interestingly, compared to the pure 4H Au NRBs, the crystal-phase-heterostructured 4H/fcc Au nanorods require less energy to complete the phase transition process with a lower transition pressure and in a narrower range. Finally, the atom-based transformation pathway during the 4H-to-fcc phase transition is revealed experimentally, which is supported by the first-principle calculations. This work not only demonstrates the stability of 4H Au nanostructure and the pressure-induced 4H-to-fcc transition mechanism but also provides a strategy for the phase engineering of noble metal nanostructures.