What dictates which ion, I- or Br-, mediates the growth of cubic Pd nanocrystals?

Cubic Pd nanocrystals (CPNCs) as one of typical nanostructures are generally fabricated using I- or Br- as capping ions. However, which ion, I- or Br-, exclusively mediates the growth of CPNCs in a given reaction system is not well understood. Herein, regardless of I- or Br- as the capping ion, we successfully achieved CPNCs in the same reaction system simply by adjusting the pH. Based on the Finke-Watzky kinetic model, an increase in pH accelerates the overall reduction rate of Pd2+, and the formation of CPNCs only occurs over the range of specific solution reduction rate constants (k1). This kinetically illuminates that the reduction rate of Pd2+ is the physicochemical parameter that determines which ion, I- or Br-, dictates the growth of CPNCs. Also, density functional theory (DFT) calculations further elucidate the dependence of the reduction rate of Pd2+ on pH and the configuration of the activated Pd2+ complex.