Growth of gold nanoplates: The case of a self-repair mechanism

In this communication, we present a novel and interesting self-repair mechanism, in which the growth of gold nanoplates is due to the self-repair of the nanopores in porous nanoframes induced by UV irradiation. TEM images indicated that the initially formed branched fragments developed into nanoplates through a medium porous frame. In such porous frames, the attachment and fusion of small nanoparticles onto the pores' edges led to the formation of growth front (bulges). The opposite growth of the bulges divided the bigger pores into the smaller. The HRTEM image showed that the grain-rotation-induced grain coalescence (GRIGC) mechanism was responsible for the ultimate closure of nanopores to form intact nanoplates.