Pointed tips on aluminum ‘octopods’ increase catalytic reactivity – Phys.org

Points matter when designing nanoparticles that drive important chemical reactions using the power of light.
Researchers at Rice University’s Laboratory for Nanophotonics (LANP) have long known that a nanoparticle’s shape affects how it interacts with light, and their latest study shows how shape affects a particle’s ability to use light to catalyze important chemical reactions.
In a comparative study, LANP graduate students Lin Yuan and Minhan Lou and their colleagues studied aluminum nanopar…

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