Step-mediated growth

Fig. 9.2. Cartoon showing the seed-mediated growth approach to the synthesis of metallic nanorods of controllable aspect ratio. In the first step, metal salts are reduced with sodium borohydride, a strong reducing agent, to metal nanospheres ( seeds ) that are 3-4 nm in diameter. In the subsequent growth steps.

Explain the atomic mechanisms of solid-state nucleation and growth. Define the critical nucleation size and the critical nucleation barrier and sketch surface-mediated growth sites such as steps, kinks, and holes. 

In some cases the particle morphology can be varied by the selection of the reducing agents. The silver nanorods can be obtained by the variation of reducing agent efficiency and the seed-mediated growth method, the latter involves at least two steps [299, 300] ... 

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