Credit: Image reproduced from Nanoscale with permission from The Royal Society of Chemistry
A versatile two-step process allows for the controlled synthesis of new materials for energy technology. Hexagonal nanoplate templates undergo chemical reactions, while maintaining their shape and incorporating a new element. On the left is an electron image showing the surface of a hexagonal nanoplate. On the right are the elemental maps of the remainingcopper (red) and selenium (blue) from the template and the incorporated silver (purple). These maps were obtained with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The copper selenide nanoplates transformed to a new material that contained silver.