We report on the high-pressure optical and mechanical properties of penta-twinned gold nanoparticles (PT-AuNPs) of different geometries: decahedra, rods, and bipyramids. Our results show that, unlike single-crystal gold nanoparticles (SC-AuNPs), PT-AuNPs preserve both their noncubic crystal structures and their overall morphology up to 30 GPa. This structural integrity under compression is related to an enhanced mechanical resilience of PT-AuNPs, despite exhibiting bulk moduli comparable to those of SC-AuNPs. Notwithstanding, comparable pressure-induced localized surface plasmon resonance redshifts—for all nanoparticle geometries—were observed. Our analysis indicates that these shifts are primarily caused by changes in the refractive index of the surrounding medium, with electron density compression playing a minor role, contrasting with the behavior in SC-AuNPs, where electron density compression has a greater influence.

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• High-pressure studies
• Nanoparticles
• Optical absorption spectroscopy
• Transmission electron microscopy
• X-ray powder diffraction