Unexpectedly high thermal stability of Au nanotriangle@mSiO₂ yolk-shell nanoparticles

The shape of Au nanoparticles (NPs) plays a crucial role for applications in, amongst others, catalysis, electronic devices, biomedicine, and sensing. Typically, the deformation of the morphology of Au NPs is the most significant cause of loss of functionality. Here, we systematically investigate the thermal stability of Au nanotriangles (NTs) coated with (mesoporous) silica shells with different morphologies (core-shell (CS): Au NT@mSiO(2)/yolk-shell (YS): Au NT@mSiO(2)) and compare these to 'bare' nanoparticles (Au NTs), by a combination of in situ and/or ex situ TEM techniques and spectroscopy methods. Au NTs with a mesoporous silica (mSiO(2)) coating were found to show much higher thermal stability than those without a mSiO(2) coating, as the mSiO(2) shell restricts the (self-)diffusion of surface atoms. For the Au NT@mSiO(2) CS and YS NPs, a thicker mSiO(2) shell provides better protection than uncoated Au NTs. Surprisingly, the Au NT@mSiO(2) YS NPs were found to be as stable as Au NT@mSiO(2) CS NPs with a core-shell morphology. We hypothesize that the only explanation for this unexpected finding was the thicker and higher density SiO2 shell of YS NPs that prevents diffusion of Au surface atoms to more thermodynamically favorable positions.