Controlled Synthesis of Au@AgAu Yolk-Shell Cuboctahedra with Well-Defined Facets

The synthesis of Au@AgAu yolk-shell cuboctahedra nanoparticles formed by galvanic replacement in a seed-mediated method is described. Initially, single-crystal Au seeds are used for the formation of Au@Ag core-shell nanocubes, which serve as the template material for the deposition of an external Au layer. The well-controlled synthesis yields the formation of cuboctahedra nanoparticles with smooth inner and outer Au/Ag surfaces. The deposition/oxidation process is described to understand the formation of cuboctahedra and octahedra nanoparticles. The Au core maintains the initial morphology of the seed and remains static at the center of the yolk-shell because of residual Ag. Structural analysis of the shell indicates intrinsic stacking faults (SFs) near the surface. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) compositional analysis show an Au-Ag nonordered alloy forming the shell. The three-dimensional structure of the nanoparticles presented open facets on the [111] as observed by electron tomography SIRT reconstruction over a stack of high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM) images. The geometrical model was validated by analyzing the direction of streaks in coherent nanobeam diffraction (NBD). The catalytic activity was evaluated using a model reaction based on the reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NTP) by NaBH4 in the presence of Au@AgAu yolk-shell nanoparticles.

Polyelemental nanoparticle libraries

Multimetallic nanoparticles are useful in many fields, yet there are no effective strategies for synthesizing libraries of such structures, in which architectures can be explored in a systematic and site-specific manner. The absence of these capabilities precludes the possibility of comprehensively exploring such systems. We present systematic studies of individual polyelemental particle systems, in which composition and size can be independently controlled and structure formation (alloy versus phase-separated state) can be understood. We made libraries consisting of every combination of five metallic elements (Au, Ag, Co, Cu, and Ni) through polymer nanoreactor-mediated synthesis. Important insight into the factors that lead to alloy formation and phase segregation at the nanoscale were obtained, and routes to libraries of nanostructures that cannot be made by conventional methods were developed.

Noble-Metal Nanocrystals with Controlled Facets for Electrocatalysis

Noble-metal nanocrystals (NCs) show excellent catalytic performance for many important electrocatalysis reactions. The crystallographic properties of the facets by which the NCs are bound, closely associated with the shape of the NCs, have a profound influence on the electrocatalytic function of the NCs. To develop an efficient strategy for the synthesis of NCs with controlled facets as well as compositions, understanding of the growth mechanism of the NCs and their interaction with the chemical species involved in NC synthesis is quite important. Furthermore, understanding the facet-dependent catalytic properties of noble-metal NCs and the corresponding mechanisms for various electrocatalysis reactions will allow for the rational design of robust electrocatalysts. In this review, we summarize recently developed synthesis strategies for the preparation of mono- and bimetallic noble-metal NCs by classifying them by the type of facets through which they are enclosed and discuss the electrocatalytic applications of noble-metal NCs with controlled facets, especially for reactions associated with fuel-cell applications, such as the oxygen reduction reaction and fuel (methanol, ethanol, and formic acid) oxidation reactions.

Ordered PdCu-Based Nanoparticles as Bifunctional Oxygen-Reduction and Ethanol-Oxidation Electrocatalysts

The development of superior non-platinum electrocatalysts for enhancing the electrocatalytic activity and stability for the oxygen-reduction reaction (ORR) and liquid fuel oxidation reaction is very important for the commercialization of fuel cells, but still a great challenge. Herein, we demonstrate a new colloidal chemistry technique for making structurally ordered PdCu-based nanoparticles (NPs) with composition control from PdCu to PdCuNi and PtCuCo. Under the dual tuning on the composition and intermetallic phase, the ordered PdCuCo NPs exhibit better activity and much enhanced stability for ORR and ethanol-oxidation reaction (EOR) than those of disordered PdCuM NPs, the commercial Pt/C and Pd/C catalysts. The density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the improved ORR activity on the PdCuM NPs stems from the catalytically active hollow sites arising from the ligand effect and the compressive strain on the Pd surface owing to the smaller atomic size of Cu, Co, and Ni.

Gaseous NH3 Confers Porous Pt Nanodendrites Assisted by Halides

Tailoring the morphology of Pt nanocrystals (NCs) is of great concern for their enhancement in catalytic activity and durability. In this article, a novel synthetic strategy is developed to selectively prepare porous dendritic Pt NCs with different structures for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) assisted by NH₃ gas and halides (F⁻, Cl⁻, Br⁻). The NH₃ gas plays critical roles on tuning the morphology. Previously, H₂ and CO gas are reported to assist the shape control of metallic nanocrystals. This is the first demonstration that NH₃ gas assists the Pt anisotropic growth. The halides also play important role in the synthetic strategy to regulate the formation of Pt NCs. As-made porous dendritic Pt NCs, especially when NH₄F is used as a regulating reagent, show superior catalytic activity for ORR compared with commercial Pt/C catalyst and other previously reported Pt-based NCs.

An unconventional mechanism of hollow nanorod formation: asymmetric Cu diffusion in Au-Cu alloy nanorods during galvanic replacement reaction

This study investigates how AuCu3 alloy nanorods transform into hollow rods during a galvanic replacement reaction. An unusual reaction intermediate was observed where the solid nanorod became partially hollow and Cu rich at one end. This was attributed to simultaneous galvanic replacement and asymmetric diffusion of Cu due to the Kirkendall effect. The hollow Au-Cu nanorods showed enhanced catalytic activity for p-nitrophenol reduction.

Well-faceted noble-metal nanocrystals with nonconvex polyhedral shapes

Precise engineering of noble-metal nanocrystals (NCs) is not only an important fundamental research topic, but also has great realistic significance in improving their performances required by the poor reserve and high cost of noble metals. Well-faceted noble-metal NCs with nonconvex polyhedral shapes could be promising candidates to optimize their performance and thus minimize their usage, as they may integrate a well-defined surface structure and a large surface area together, enabling them to have outstanding performance and high efficiency of atomic utilization. Moreover, undesirable aggregation and ripening phenomena could be avoided. This review provides a comprehensive summary of the unique characteristics and corresponding models of well-faceted nonconvex polyhedral noble-metal NCs by classifying the cases into four distinct types, namely the concave polyhedral structure, excavated polyhedral structure, branched structure and nanocage structure, respectively. Due to the complexity of nonconvex morphologies and the thermodynamic antipathy for the growth of nonconvex shaped NCs, we firstly demonstrate the structure characterization and synthetic methodology in detail. Subsequently, typical applications in electrocatalysis and plasmonic fields are presented to demonstrate the unique surface and morphological effects generated from the well-faceted nonconvex NCs. To promote further development in this field, the perspectives and challenges concerning well-faceted noble-metal NCs with nonconvex shapes are put forward in the end.

Ru Nanoframes with an fcc Structure and Enhanced Catalytic Properties

Noble-metal nanoframes are of great interest to many applications due to their unique open structures. Among various noble metals, Ru has never been made into nanoframes. In this study, we report for the first time an effective method based on seeded growth and chemical etching for the facile synthesis of Ru nanoframes with high purity. The essence of this approach is to induce the preferential growth of Ru on the corners and edges of Pd truncated octahedra as the seeds by kinetic control. The resultant Pd-Ru core-frame octahedra could be easily converted to Ru octahedral nanoframes of ∼2 nm in thickness by selectively removing the Pd cores through chemical etching. Most importantly, in this approach the face-centered cubic (fcc) crystal structure of Pd seeds was faithfully replicated by Ru that usually takes an hcp structure. The fcc Ru nanoframes showed higher catalytic activities toward the reduction of p-nitrophenol by NaBH4 and the dehydrogenation of ammonia borane compared with hcp Ru nanowires with roughly the same thickness.

Morphology and Phase Controlled Construction of Pt-Ni Nanostructures for Efficient Electrocatalysis

Highly open metallic nanoframes represent an emerging class of new nanostructures for advanced catalytic applications due to their fancy outline and largely increased accessible surface area. However, to date, the creation of bimetallic nanoframes with tunable structure remains a challenge. Herein, we develop a simple yet efficient chemical method that allows the preparation of highly composition segregated Pt-Ni nanocrystals with controllable shape and high yield. The selective use of dodecyltrimethylammonium chloride (DTAC) and control of oleylamine (OM)/oleic acid (OA) ratio are critical to the controllable creation of highly composition segregated Pt-Ni nanocrystals. While DTAC mediates the compositional anisotropic growth, the OM/OA ratio controls the shapes of the obtained highly composition segregated Pt-Ni nanocrystals. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on composition segregated tetrahexahedral Pt-Ni NCs. Importantly, by simply treating the highly composition segregated Pt-Ni nanocrystals with acetic acid overnight, those solid Pt-Ni nanocrystals can be readily transformed into highly open Pt-Ni nanoframes with hardly changed shape and size. The resulting highly open Pt-Ni nanoframes are high-performance electrocatalysts for both oxygen reduction reaction and alcohol oxidations, which are far better than those of commercial Pt/C catalyst. Our results reported herein suggest that enhanced catalysts can be developed by engineering the structure/composition of the nanocrystals.

Kinetically Controlling Surface Structure to Construct Defect-Rich Intermetallic Nanocrystals: Effective and Stable Catalysts

Kinetic control of surface defects is achieved, and cubic, concave cubic, and defect-rich cubic intermetallic Pt3 Sn nanocrystals are prepared for the electro-oxidation of formic acid. The generality of this kinetic approach is demonstrated by the fabrication of Pt-Mn nanocrystals with different surface defects. The defect-rich nanocrystals exhibit high catalytic activity and stability concurrently, indicating their potential application in fuel cells.

Porous single-crystalline AuPt@Pt bimetallic nanocrystals with high mass electrocatalytic activities

This paper describes the design and synthesis of porous single-crystalline AuPt@Pt bimetallic nanocrystals with excellent mass activities for the oxygen reduction reaction and formic acid oxidation.

Au–Pt bimetallic structures can effectively improve the activity and stability of catalysts in several fuel cell related electrochemical reactions. However, most of the methods for the preparation of Au–Pt nanocrystals (NCs) with core–shell structures are step-wise syntheses, which are adverse for reducing the production costs and the scale-up process. This paper describes a one-pot synthesis of rhombic dodecahedral AuPt@Pt bimetallic nanocrystals with dendritic branches. The dendritic branches on the surfaces were grown through oriented attachment and the whole particle exhibited a single-crystal structure. The thickness of the dendritic Pt shell can be controlled by tuning the introduced Pt precursor. With the Au-enhancement effect arising from the Au–Pt bimetallic core and high atom utilization efficiency provided by the porous structure, the AuPt@Pt bimetallic NCs exhibited greatly enhanced electrocatalytic properties (e.g. oxygen reduction reaction and formic acid oxidation) than those of the commercial Pt/C catalyst.

Guided Evolution of Bulk Metallic Glass Nanostructures: A Platform for Designing 3D Electrocatalytic Surfaces

Electrochemical devices such as fuel cells, electrolyzers, lithium-air batteries, and pseudocapacitors are expected to play a major role in energy conversion/storage in the near future. Here, it is demonstrated how desirable bulk metallic glass compositions can be obtained using a combinatorial approach and it is shown that these alloys can serve as a platform technology for a wide variety of electrochemical applications through several surface modification techniques.

Pt-Based Icosahedral Nanocages: Using a Combination of {111} Facets, Twin Defects, and Ultrathin Walls to Greatly Enhance Their Activity toward Oxygen Reduction

Engineering the surface structure of noble-metal nanocrystals offers an effective route to the development of catalysts or electrocatalysts with greatly enhanced activity. Here, we report the synthesis of Pt-based icosahedral nanocages whose surface is enclosed by both {111} facets and twin boundaries while the wall thickness can be made as thin as six atomic layers. The nanocages are derived from Pd@Pt4.5L icosahedra by selectively etching away the Pd in the core. During etching, the multiply twinned structure can be fully retained whereas the Pt atoms in the wall reconstruct to eliminate the corrugated structure built in the original Pt shell. The Pt-based icosahedral nanocages show a specific activity of 3.50 mA cm(-2) toward the oxygen reduction reaction, much greater than those of the Pt-based octahedral nanocages (1.98 mA cm(-2)) and a state-of-the-art commercial Pt/C catalyst (0.35 mA cm(-2)). After 5000 cycles of accelerated durability test, the mass activity of the Pt-based icosahedral nanocages drops from 1.28 to 0.76 A mg(-1)Pt, which is still about four times greater than that of the original Pt/C catalyst (0.19 A mg(-1)Pt).

Control of the composition of Pt-Ni electrocatalysts in surfactant-free synthesis using neat N-formylpiperidine

This paper describes the facile and surfactant-free synthesis of faceted Pt-Ni alloy nanoparticle electrocatalysts using neat N-formylpiperidine as a new type of solvent. Unlike the widely-used colloidal synthesis based on long-carbon chain surfactants, nanoparticles made in neat N-formylpiperidine possess a directly accessible surface for electrocatalytic reactions, making it a very attractive alternative solvent. The area-specific oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity is much higher than the commercial Pt/C catalyst reference and reaches a maximum of 1.12 mA cm(-2) for the Pt-Ni alloy nanoparticles. We observed that the freshly formed Pt-Ni alloy could have controllable bulk and near surface compositions under the same initial reaction conditions and precursor ratio. The change in the composition could be attributed to the effect of CO on the formation of uniform nuclei at the initial stage, and a different deposition rate between Pt and Ni metals during the growth. The well-defined Pt-Ni nanoparticle catalysts show strong composition-dependent catalytic behavior in ORR, highlighting the important role of controlling the growth kinetics in the preparation of active Pt-Ni ORR catalysts.

Synthesis of Few-Atomic-Layer BN Hollow Nanospheres and Their Applications as Nanocontainers and Catalyst Support Materials

In this work, few-atomic-layer boron nitride (BN) hollow nanospheres were directly synthesized via a modified CVD method followed by subsequent high-temperature degassing treatment. The encapsulated impurities in the hollow nanospheres were effectively removed during the reaction process. The BN shells of most nanospheres consisted of 2-6 atomic layers. Because of the low thickness, the obtained BN hollow nanospheres presented excellent performance in many aspects. For instance, they were demonstrated as useful nanocontainers for controllable multistep release of iodine, which could diffuse and be encapsulated into the few-layer BN hollow nanospheres when heating. They were also promising support materials that could markedly increase the photocatalytic activity of TiO2 nanocrystals.

Supersaturation-controlled surface structure evolution of Pd@Pt core-shell nanocrystals: enhancement of the ORR activity at a sub-10 nm scale

Here, we designed and implemented a facile strategy for controlling the surface evolution of Pd@Pt core-shell nanostructures by simply adjusting the volume of OH(-) to control the reducing ability of ascorbic acid and finally manipulating the supersaturation in the reaction system. The surface structure of the obtained Pd@Pt bimetallic nanocrystals transformed from a Pt {111} facet-exposed island shell to a conformal Pt {100} facet-exposed shell by increasing the pH value. The as-prepared well aligned Pd@Pt core-island shell nanocubes present both significantly enhanced electrocatalytic activity and favorable long-term stability toward the oxygen reduction reaction in alkaline media.

Synthesis of core/shell structured Pd3Au@Pt/C with enhanced electrocatalytic activity by regioselective atomic layer deposition combined with a wet chemical method

Core/shell structured Pd₃Au@Pt/C created by regioselective atomic layer deposition combined with a wet chemical method demonstrates improved electrocatalytic activity toward formic acid oxidation and oxygen reduction compared with commercial Pt/C.

Highly-branched mesoporous Au–Pd–Pt trimetallic nanoflowers blooming on reduced graphene oxide as an oxygen reduction electrocatalyst

Highly-branched mesoporous Au–Pd–Pt trimetallic nanoflowers blooming on rGO are synthesized via a one-pot two surfactant-assisted approach.

Facile and shape-controlled electrochemical synthesis of gold nanocrystals by changing water contents in deep eutectic solvents and their electrocatalytic activity

Au NCs with different morphologies were synthesized in DESs by changing water contents, and used as electrocatalysts for ethanol electrooxidation.

Ultralong PtNi alloy nanowires enabled by the coordination effect with superior ORR durability

Ultralong PtNi nanowires were prepared by taking advantage of the coordination effect to delicately control the reduction and alloying kinetics.

Shape-controlled synthesis of Au–Pd bimetallic nanocrystals for catalytic applications

This review describes recent progress in the design and synthesis of shape-controlled Au–Pd bimetallic NCs and their emerging catalytic applications.

High impact of the reducing agent on palladium nanomaterials: new insights from X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and oxygen reduction reaction

The nature of the reduction agent changes drastically the palladium nanomaterials chemical stability, which subsequently alters earnestly their catalytic performances.

Transition-sized Au92nanoparticle bridging non-fcc-structured gold nanoclusters and fcc-structured gold nanocrystals

We report the intriguing internal structure, crystallographic arrangement, optical absorption and electrochemical properties of a transition-sized Au₉₂nanoparticle.

Epitaxial Growth of Twinned Au-Pt Core-Shell Star-Shaped Decahedra as Highly Durable Electrocatalysts

Pt epitaxial layer on a nanoparticle with twinned structure and well-defined shape is highly desirable in order to achieve high performance in both catalytic activity and durability toward oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). However, it remains tremendously challenging to produce conformal, heterogeneous, twinned nanostructures due to the high internal strain and surface energy of Pt. In addition, these twinned nanostructures may be subject to degradation in highly corrosive ORR environments due to the high energy of twin boundary. Here we report the synthesis of Au-Pt core-shell star-shaped decahedra bounded mainly by {111} facets, in which Pt shells with controlled thickness epitaxially grew on Au cores with a 5-fold twinned structure. The incorporation of the amine group decreases the surface energy of Pt by strong adsorption and thus facilitates the epitaxial growth of Pt on Au core instead of the dendritic growth. In addition, Br(-) ion could largely stabilize the {111} facets of Pt, which prevent the formation of spherical nanoparticles. The Au-Pt core-shell decahedra with thicker Pt shell exhibited enhanced ORR properties in terms of activity and durability. Specifically, AuPt1.03 star-shaped decahedra achieved the highest mass activity (0.94 mA/μg(Pt)) and area activity (1.09 mA/cm(2)(Pt)), which is ∼6.7 and 5 times, respectively, as high as those of the commercial Pt/C (ETEK). Significantly, such star-shaped decahedra were highly stable with ∼10% loss in area activity and ∼20% loss in mass activity after 30,000 CV cycles in O2 saturated acid solution.

Galvanic replacement synthesis of Ag x Au1-x @CeO2 (0 ≤ x ≤ 1) core@shell nanospheres with greatly enhanced catalytic performance

A galvanic replacement strategy has been successfully adopted to design Ag x Au1-x @CeO2 core@shell nanospheres derived from Ag@CeO2 ones. After etching using HAuCl4, the Ag core was in situ replaced with Ag x Au1-x alloy nanoframes, and void spaces were left under the CeO2 shell. Among the as-prepared Ag x Au1-x @CeO2 catalysts, Ag0.64Au0.36@CeO2 shows the optimal catalytic performance, whose catalytic efficiency reaches even 2.5 times higher than our previously reported Pt@CeO2 nanospheres in the catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) by ammonia borane (AB). Besides, Ag0.64Au0.36@CeO2 also exhibits a much lower 100% conversion temperature of 120 °C for catalytic CO oxidation compared with the other samples.

Photothermally Induced Optical Property Changes of Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) Microgel-Based Etalons

Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) microgel-based optical devices were designed such that they can be stimulated to change their optical properties in response to light produced by a light-emitting diode (LED). The devices were fabricated by sandwiching the synthesized microgels between two Cr/Au layers all supported on a glass coverslip with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) deposited. Here, we found that these devices can be stimulated to change their optical properties when exposed to green LED light, which excites the AuNPs and increases the local temperature, causing the thermoresponsive microgels to decrease in diameter, resulting in a change in the devices' optical properties. We also found that the sensitivity of the devices to light was more pronounced as the environmental temperature approached the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) for the microgels, although the sensitivity of the devices to light exposure dropped off dramatically as the environmental temperature was increased above the LCST. This was a direct result of the microgels already being in their collapsed state and therefore unable to decrease in diameter any further due to light exposure. Finally, we found that the sensitivity of the devices to light exposure increased with increasing number of AuNP layers in the devices. We anticipate that these devices could be used for drug delivery applications; by using light to stimulate microgel collapse, the microgel-based devices can be stimulated to release small molecules on demand.