Universal Sulfide-Assisted Synthesis of M–Ag Heterodimers (M = Pd, Au, Pt) as Efficient Platforms for Fabricating Metal–Semiconductor Heteronanostructures

We report a universal sulfide-assisted synthesis strategy to prepare dumbbell-like M–Ag heterodimers (M = Pd, Au, Pt). Sulfide ions can give fine control over the reaction kinetics of Ag precursors, resulting in the anisotropic overgrowth of Ag to realize the dumbbell-like heterodimers irrespective of the surface facets or components of the M domain. The M–Ag heterodimers were facilely transformed to M–Ag2S heterodimers via a simple sulfidation reaction. This study provides a versatile approach to realizing not only metal–metal heterodimers but also semiconductor–metal heterodimers and will pave the way for designing heteronanostructures with unprecedented morphologies and functions.