Carving at the Nanoscale: Sequential Galvanic Exchange and Kirkendall Growth at Room Temperature

Shape control of inorganic nanocrystals is important for understanding basic size- and shape-dependent scaling laws and is useful in a wide range of applications. With minor modifications in the chemical environment, it is possible to control the reaction and diffusion processes at room temperature, opening up a synthetic route for the production of polymetallic hollow nanoparticles with very different morphology and composition, obtained by the simultaneous or sequential action of galvanic replacement and the Kirkendall effect.