From flat to deep concave: an unusual mode of facet control.

Au particles with rhombic dodecahedron outlines and deep cavities are obtained by epitaxial growth from a triangular nanoplate. An unusual "wrapping" growth that combines ligand-promoted facet-selective growth and site-specific deposition is proposed. Such a templateless growth not only allows the extreme defect-tolerance, but also broadens the synthetic control at the nanoscale.