Qikui's paper has been accepted for publication in Particle & Particle Systems Characterization (IF 4.474). Congratulations!

This paper was invited to submit by Prof. Yugang Sun (Guest Editor) and will be included in a Plasmonic Particles special issue of the journal. This paper was selected as "Inside Front Cover" paper.

Authors: Qikui Fan, Kai Liu, Zhaojun Liu, Hongpo Liu, Lei Zhang, Ping Zhong, and Chuanbo Gao*

Title: A Ligand-Exchange Route to Noble Metal Nanocrystals with a Clean Surface for Enhanced Optical and Catalytic Properties

Link to the Publisher: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ppsc.201700075/abstract

Inside Front Cover: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ppsc.201770027/full

Highlighted by Advanced Science News: http://www.advancedsciencenews.com/noble-metal-nanocrystals-clean-surface/

Abstract: Noble metal nanocrystals that are free of capping ligands promise significantly enhanced activities in surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and catalytic applications. Conventional physical and chemical processes to remove the capping ligands are usually too harsh to retain the morphology and surface structure of the noble metal nanocrystals. In this work, we present a mild, effective and robust strategy to remove the capping ligands from the surface of noble metal nanocrystals. Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and oleylamine (OAm), which are generally known to adsorb strongly on the metal surface, have been successfully removed from the Au and Pt nanocrystals, respectively, by a convenient ligand-exchange process with diethylamine (DEA). The resulting surface-clean Au nanospheres and nanoflowers showed significantly enhanced activity in SERS with great potential in single-particle SERS applications. The surface-clean Pt nanocrystals showed highly improved electrocatalytic activity, compared with those cleaned by conventional methods. We believe this novel ligand-exchange strategy opens up new opportunities in eliminating the effect of the capping ligands for optimal activities of colloidal noble metal nanocrystals in a variety of applications.