Synthesis of penta-fold twinned Pd-Au-Pd segmental nanorods for in situ monitoring catalytic reaction

Multimetallic nanomaterials have many applications. The controlled synthesis of multimetallic nanomaterials is highly desired. We report a study on using penta-fold twinned (PFT) Au nanorods (NRs) as seeds to synthesize PFT Pd-Au-Pd segmental NRs. The results show that the different crystal structures of seeds, I − and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) significantly affect the deposition of Pd on seeds surface. The PFT Pd-Au-Pd segmental NRs showed excellent surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) performance and improved catalytic activity. Our research is of great significance for the synthesis of similar nanostructures, and we also shown that PFT Pd-Au-Pd segmental NRs might have potential applications in studying the process of organic reaction.