Tonnam Balankura edited Introduction.tex  almost 9 years ago

Commit id: 6d3aa88ba4d8fc48d6d62afb80396a76d929b05d

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% Two bodies of literature pointing to a debate  % Experimental  % Computational  Nanocrystals can be grown to specific sizes and shapes, but the question of what is the growth  controlling mechanism remains elusive. This is important because numerous properties of metal nanocrystals are found to depend on their size \cite{Roduner_2006} and shape \cite{Xia_2008}.  In catalysis for instance, tetrahedral Pt nanocrystals are more active than spherical and cubic Pt nanocrystals as the catalyst for electron-transfer reactions \cite{Narayanan_2005}.  The controlling mechanism for various systems have been studied using both experimental and computational techniques. 

Despite much excellent experimental and theoretical work, theorists examining the mechanism have not yet explored the influence of the solution phase in growing nanocrystals with well-defined shapes.  % Urgency