Possible morphologies of Au Nanoparticles – Cuboctahedron

Compare the Ideal structure with the structures calculated for various numbers of gold atoms by Density Functional Theory.

As an fcc structure, the shape can be truncated directly from the octahedron. Also, it can be further truncated into cubo-truncated rhombic dodecahedron. The Au₁₃ and Au₂₈ were originally respectively assigned in groups icosahedron and truncated cube. However, comparing with the ideal structures, it seems these fit more in cuboctahedron.

The structures were obtained from the literature (A. S. Barnard, Accounts of Chemical Research, 2012, 45, 1688-1697).