Congratulations to Chethana for her paper in Chemical Science!

Cu nanocrystals are transformed into the ternary b-Cu₂V₂O₇ phase upon a solid state reaction with a vanadium molecular precursor. It is shown that the size of the nanocrystals impacts the phase composition and the grain size of the copper vanadate, which are both key parameters governing its photoelectrochemical performance towards water oxidation. In-situ X-Ray diffraction contributed to uncover the reaction mechanism and to elucidate the dependence of the reaction kinetics on the seed size. This study is another great example which highlights the potential of nanocrystal-seeded synthesis in materials chemistry.