Synthesis of PtPd Bimetal Nanocrystals with Controllable Shape, Composition, and Their Tunable Catalytic Properties

• Published in: Nano letters Vol. 12; no. 8; pp. 4265 - 4270
• Main Authors: Huang, Xiaoqing, Li, Yujing, Li, Yongjia, Zhou, Hailong, Duan, Xiangfeng, Huang, Yu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Chemical Society 08-08-2012
• Subjects: Bimetals; Chemical synthesis methods; Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Exact sciences and technology; Formations; Hydrogenation; Low-dimensional structures (superlattices, quantum well structures, multilayers): structure, and nonelectronic properties; Materials science; Methods of nanofabrication; Nanocrystals; Nanopowders; Nanoscale materials and structures: fabrication and characterization; Nanoscale materials: clusters, nanoparticles, nanotubes, and nanocrystals; Nanostructure; Optimization; Physics; Precursors; Strategy; Structure of solids and liquids; crystallography; Surfaces and interfaces; thin films and whiskers (structure and nonelectronic properties); Synthesis; palladium; Shape control; platinum; alloy; composition control; hydrogenation; Cubic lattices; Monocrystals; Nitrobenzene; Halides; Morphology; Hydrogenation; Nanostructured materials; Precursor; Nanocrystal; Nanomaterial synthesis
• ISSN: 1530-6984; 1530-6992
• DOI: 10.1021/nl301931m

We report a facile synthetic strategy to single-crystalline PtPd nanocrystals with controllable shapes and tunable compositions. In the developed synthesis, the molar ratio of the starting precursors determines the composition in the final PtPd nanocrystals, while the halides function as the shape-directing agent to induce the formation of PtPd nanocrystals with cubic or octahedral/tetrahedral morphology. These obtained PtPd nanocrystals exhibit high activity in the hydrogenation of nitrobenzene, and their performance is highly shape- and composition-dependent with Pt in ∼50% showing the optimum activity and the {100}-facet-enclosed PtPd nanocrystals demonstrating a higher activity than the {111}-facet-bounded PtPd nanocrystals.