Synthesis of small silver nanocubes in a hydrophobic solvent by introducing oxidative etching with Fe(iii) species

The role of oxidative etching in the synthesis of noble-metal nanocrystals with a hydrophilic solvent (in particular, ethylene glycol) has been explored in our previous work. In this paper, we demonstrate that the mechanism of oxidative etching could be extended to the synthesis of single-crystal Ag nanocrystals in a hydrophobic solvent such as isoamyl ether. In this case, Fe(III) species in the form of FeCl3 or Fe(acac)3 had to be introduced into the hydrophobic system as an effective etching agent. The final product contained single-crystal Ag nanocubes (slightly truncated) with an edge length as small as ∼13.5 nm, a size that has been difficult to achieve using a hydrophilic system.