{"id":5413,"date":"2022-06-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-26T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.first.iir.isct.ac.jp\/detail_1280\/"},"modified":"2022-06-27T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-06-26T15:00:00","slug":"detail_1280","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.first.iir.isct.ac.jp\/en\/detail_1280\/","title":{"rendered":"Yolk-Shell Nanocrystals with Movable Gold Yolk: Next Generation of Photocatalysts: Assoc. Prof. Tso-Fu Mark Chang"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Owing to their unique permeable, hollow shell structures with inner, movable cores, yolk-shell nanocrystals are suitable for a wide variety of applications. Yolk-shell nanocrystals consisting of a gold core with various semiconductor shells have been developed by Tokyo Tech researchers, using a novel sequential ion-exchange process. These metal-semiconductor yolk-shell nanocrystals can serve as highly effective photocatalysts for many applications.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Yolk-shell nanocrystals are unique materials with fascinating structural properties, such as a permeable shell, interior void space, and movable yolk. These nanocrystals are suitable for a variety of applications, depending on the choice of materials used for their fabrication.<\/p>\n

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For example, if the inner surface of their shells are reflective, yolk-shell nanocrystals can make for a reliable photovoltaic device. A mobile core can can act as a stirrer, capable of mixing solutions held within the shell. The inner and outer surfaces of the shell provide plenty of active sites for reactions, and the yolk-shell structure’s fascinating properties (a result of electronic interactions and charge-transfer between the surfaces of the structure) make these nanocrystals ideal for photocatalysis applications. Understandably, yolk-shell nanocrystals have earned the attention of researchers worldwide.<\/p>\n

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Now, in a collaborative study published in ACS Applied Nano Materials<\/i><\/a>\"(External, which was also selected as the ACS Editors’ Choice, an international research team led by Associate Professor Tso-Fu Mark Chang and Assistant Professor Chun-Yi Chen at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) and Professor Yung-Jung Hsu at the National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University in Taiwan have developed several yolk-shell structures containing a metallic gold (Au) yolk with various semiconductor shells. Such structures have risen in popularity worldwide because of their fascinating properties, owing to their Au cores.<\/p>\n

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“Yolk-shell nanocrystals comprising of a metal yolk and semiconductor shells are particularly interesting because they can be geared to mass transport-related utilizations, for example, photocatalysis,” says Professor Chen.<\/p>\n

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To make the nanocrystals, the researchers employed a sequential ion-exchange process. The procedure involves delicate sulfidation on an Au@Cu2<\/span>O core-shell nanocrystal template (where Au contributes to the core, and Cu2<\/span>O to the shell formation), followed by a kinetically controlled cation exchange reaction that enables conversion of the shell composition (i.e., Cu2<\/span>O) into various metal sulfides, which are semiconductors. Four representative yolk-shell nanocrystal samples, including Au@Cu7<\/span>S4<\/span>, Au@CdS, Au@ZnS, and Au@Ni3<\/span>S4<\/span>, were synthesized for investigation in this way, as shown in Figure 1.<\/p>\n

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\"Figure<\/p>\n

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Figure 1. <\/span>(a) Schematic depiction of the synthetic procedure for Au@Cu7S4, Au@CdS, Au@ZnS, and Au@Ni3S4.<\/span>
(b-e) shows the corresponding TEM images.<\/span>
The synthesis of yolk-shell nanostructures involves sulfidation on an Au@Cu2O core-shell nanocrystal template to convert the shell composition to various metal sulphides.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Contact<\/h2>\n

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Sone-Chang Lab\uff08Advanced Materials Research Core\uff09
http:\/\/www.ames.pi.titech.ac.jp\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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Links<\/strong>
<\/a>\u25b6Tokyo Institute of Technology<\/a>
\u25b6Institute of Innovative Research\uff08IIR\uff09<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Owing to their unique permeable, hollow shell structures with inner, movable cores, yolk-shell nanocrystals are suitable for a wide variety of applications. Yolk-shell nanocrystals consisting of a gold core with various semiconductor shells have been developed by Tokyo Tech researchers, using a novel sequential ion-exchange process. These metal-semiconductor yolk-shell nanocrystals can serve as highly effective […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_locale":"en_US","_original_post":"https:\/\/www.first.iir.isct.ac.jp\/detail_1280\/","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release","en-US"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.first.iir.isct.ac.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.first.iir.isct.ac.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.first.iir.isct.ac.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.first.iir.isct.ac.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.first.iir.isct.ac.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.first.iir.isct.ac.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5413\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.first.iir.isct.ac.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.first.iir.isct.ac.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.first.iir.isct.ac.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}