Facile synthesis of monodisperse palladium nanocubes and the characteristics of self-assembly

Abstract This paper reports a facile synthesis for monodisperse 85 nm Pd nanocubes in aqueous solution at room temperature. By using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as a capping reagent and reducing K 2 PdCl 6 with ascorbic acid, the formation of 85 nm Pd nanocubes was clearly confirmed by observing the field-emission scanning electron microscopy images. After dispersion into pure water and casting on the surface of glassy carbon (GC), Pd nanocubes were found to assemble to form a two-dimensional square array, presumably due to the effect of CTAB. In addition, simply allowing the Pd nanocubes to lie in solution on the smooth GC surface lead to the formation of a flat and continuous structure of assembled Pd nanocubes on the GC surface.