@article{Zhu2019, 
author = {Xiyue Zhu and Hongpan Rong and Xiaobin Zhang and Qiumei Di and Huishan Shang and Bing Bai and Jiajia Liu and Jia Liu and Meng Xu and Wenxing Chen and Jiatao Zhang},
title = {Compressive surface strained atomic-layer Cu2O on Cu@Ag nanoparticles},
year = {2019},
journal = {Nano Research},
volume = {12},
number = {5},
pages = {1187-1192},
keywords = {compressive surface strain, atomic-layer Cu2O, precise thickness-control, catalytic activity},
url = {https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.1007/s12274-019-2380-1},
doi = {10.1007/s12274-019-2380-1},
abstract = {Control of surface structure at the atomic level can effectively tune catalytic properties of nanomaterials. Tuning surface strain is an effective strategy for enhancing catalytic activity; however, the correlation studies between the surface strain with catalytic performance are scant because such mechanistic studies require the precise control of surface strain on catalysts. In this work, a simple strategy of precisely tuning compressive surface strain of atomic-layer Cu2O on Cu@Ag (AL-Cu2O/Cu@Ag) nanoparticles (NPs) is demonstrated. The AL-Cu2O is synthesized by structure evolution of Cu@Ag core-shell nanoparticles, and the precise thickness-control of AL-Cu2O is achieved by tuning the molar ratio of Cu/Ag of the starting material. Aberration-corrected high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (AC-HRTEM) and EELS elemental mapping characterization showed that the compressive surface strain of AL-Cu2O along the [111] and [200] directions can be precisely tuned from 6.5% to 1.6% and 6.6% to 4.7%, respectively, by changing the number of AL-Cu2O layer from 3 to 6. The as-prepared AL-Cu2O/Cu@Ag NPs exhibited excellent catalytic property in the synthesis of azobenzene from aniline, in which the strained 4-layers Cu2O (4.5% along the [111] direction, 6.1% along the [200] direction) exhibits the best catalytic performance. This work may be beneficial for the design and surface engineering of catalysts toward specific applications.}
}