Morphology of supported nanoparticles

An short review of the shape of supported nanoparticles is presented. In the first part of this review the basic theoretical concepts governing the shape of crystals are given. The validity of the concepts of equilibrium shape for crystals with nanometer dimensions is discussed as well as the influence of the support. The effect of the growth kinetics on the particle shape is also discussed. In the second part, several examples of metal (Au and Pd) nanoparticles supported on MgO, mica and graphite substrates are given to demonstrate the utility of the main experimental techniques (TEM, STM, AFM, GISAXS) used to observe the morphology of nanocrystals.