Lattice Compression Revealed at the ≈1 nm Scale
Ziwei Xu, Hongwei Dong, Wanmiao Gu, Zhen He, Fengming Jin, Chengming Wang, Qing You, Jin Li, Haiteng Deng, Lingwen Liao, Dong Chen, Jun Yang, Zhikun Wu
Abstract
Abstract Lattice tuning at the ≈1 nm scale is fascinating and challenging; for instance, lattice compression at such a minuscule scale has not been observed. The lattice compression might also bring about some unusual properties, which waits to be verified. Through ligand induction, we herein achieve the lattice compression in a ≈1 nm gold nanocluster for the first time, as detected by the single‐crystal X‐ray crystallography. In a freshly synthesized Au 52 (CHT) 28 (CHT=S‐ c −C 6 H 11 ) nanocluster, the lattice distance of the (110) facet is found to be compressed from 4.51 to 3.58 Å at the near end. However, the lattice distances of the (111) and (100) facets show no change in different positions. The lattice‐compressed nanocluster exhibits superior electrocatalytic activity for the CO 2 reduction reaction (CO 2 RR) compared to that exhibited by the same‐sized Au 52 (TBBT) 32 (TBBT=4‐ tert ‐butyl‐benzenethiolate) nanocluster and larger Au nanocrystals without lattice variation, indicating that lattice tuning is an efficient method for tailoring the properties of metal nanoclusters. Further theoretical calculations explain the high CO 2 RR performance of the lattice‐compressed Au 52 (CHT) 28 and provide a correlation between its structure and catalytic activity.