Synthesis of tetrahexahedral platinum nanocrystals with high-index facets and high electro-oxidation activity

Selective synthesis of nickel oxide nanowires and length effect on their electrochemical properties

Nickel oxide nanostructures with different lengths have been easily synthesized by calcining nickel foil after soaking in LiOH solution of different concentrations. The measurements of electrochemical properties of these NiO nanostructures show that different lengths of NiO nanostructures would have different electrochemical properties and the NiO nanowires with the longest length have the largest specific capacitance of 180.00 F g(-1).

Synthesis of ZnO-Pt nanoflowers and their photocatalytic applications

The photocatalytic behaviors of ZnO nanoparticles have been intensively studied recently. However, the photocatalytic efficiency of pure ZnO nanoparticles always suffers from the quick recombination of photoexcited electrons and holes. In order to suppress the electron-hole recombination and then raise the photocatalytic efficiency of ZnO, metal nanoparticles have been combined with ZnO to form ZnO-metal heterostructures. In this work, the feasibility of synthesizing ZnO-Pt composite nanoflowers for optimized catalytic properties was studied. Three different Pt nanocrystals, i.e. cubic Pt nanocrystals enclosed by {100} facets, octahedral Pt nanocrystals enclosed by {111} facets, and truncated octahedral Pt nanocrystals enclosed by both {111} and {100} facets, were selected as seeds for epitaxial growth of ZnO. A ZnO-Pt flowerlike nanostructure was formed by selective growth of ZnO nanolobes at {111} facets of the truncated octahedral Pt nanocrystals. The resultant nanoflowers had well defined ZnO-Pt interfaces and exposed Pt {100} facets, as confirmed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high-resolution TEM (HRTEM) measurements. The photocatalytic behaviors of the resultant ZnO-Pt nanoflowers were demonstrated in the photodegradation of ethyl violet. In comparison with the commercial TiO(2) photocatalyst P25, the ZnO-Pt flowerlike nanostructures showed improved catalytic efficiency. Notable ferromagnetism of the obtained ZnO-Pt flowerlike nanostructures was also observed. It is believed that the ZnO-Pt interface played an important role in the enlarged magnetic coercivity of the ZnO-Pt nanoflowers.

Properties and applications of colloidal nonspherical noble metal nanoparticles

Nanoparticles of noble metals belong to the most extensively studied colloidal systems in the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology. Due to continuing progress in the synthesis of nanoparticles with controlled morphologies, the exploration of unique morphology-dependent properties has gained momentum. Anisotropic features in nonspherical nanoparticles make them ideal candidates for enhanced chemical, catalytic, and local field related applications. Nonspherical plasmon resonant nanoparticles offer favorable properties for their use as analytical tools, or as diagnostic and therapeutic agents. This Review highlights morphology-dependent properties of nonspherical noble metal nanoparticles with a focus on localized surface plasmon resonance and local field enhancement, as well as their applications in various fields including Raman spectroscopy, fluorescence enhancement, analytics and sensing, photothermal therapy, (bio-)diagnostics, and imaging.

Nonspherical noble metal nanoparticles: colloid-chemical synthesis and morphology control

Metal nanoparticles have been the subject of widespread research over the past two decades. In recent years, noble metals have been the focus of numerous studies involving synthesis, characterization, and applications. Synthesis of an impressive range of noble metal nanoparticles with varied morphologies has been reported. Researchers have made a great progress in learning how to engineer materials on a nanometer length scale that has led to the understanding of the fundamental size- and shape-dependent properties of matter and to devising of new applications. In this article, we review the recent progress in the colloid-chemical synthesis of nonspherical nanoparticles of a few important noble metals (mainly Ag, Au, Pd, and Pt), highlighting the factors that influence the particle morphology and discussing the mechanisms behind the nonspherical shape evolution. The article attempts to present a thorough discussion of the basic principles as well as state-of-the-art morphology control in noble metal nanoparticles.

Electrochemical synthesis and catalytic property of sub-10 nm platinum cubic nanoboxes

We report an electrochemical synthesis of ultrafine Pt cubic nanoboxes from Pt-on-Ag heteronanostructures. These cubic nanoboxes have an average edge length of about 6 nm and a wall thickness of 1.5 nm. Several reaction parameters including the profile of applied potentials were examined to develop an optimal procedure for controlling the size, shape, and surface morphology of the nanoboxes. A strong shape-dependent catalytic property is observed for Pt cubic nanoboxes, which is 1.5 times more active than hollow spheres in terms of turn over frequency for catalytic oxidation of methanol.

A seed-based diffusion route to monodisperse intermetallic CuAu nanocrystals

A seedy route: monodisperse CuAu and Cu(3) Au nanocrystals (NCs) were fabricated by a seed-based diffusion route using Au NCs as precursors. This method has advantages in controlling the size and monodispersity of the products. Moving a solid-state reaction into solution may help to achieve homogeneous diffusion and require less time and thermal energy.

Synthesis of platinum cubes, polypods, cuboctahedrons, and raspberries assisted by cobalt nanocrystals

The introduction of metallic traces into the synthesis of platinum nanocrystals (Pt NCs) has been investigated as a surfactant-independent means of controlling shape. Various nanocrystal morphologies have been produced without modification of the reaction conditions, composition, and concentration other than the presence of cobalt traces (<5%). In the presence of metallic cobalt (a strong reducer for Pt cations) cubic Pt NCs are obtained, while cobalt ions or gold NCs have no effect on the synthesis, and as a result, polypods are obtained. Intermediate shapes such as cemented cubes or cuboctahedron NCs are also obtained under similar conditions. Thus, various NC shapes can be obtained with subtle changes, which illustrates the high susceptibility and mutability of the NC shape to modification of the reaction kinetics during the early reduction process. Our studies help progress toward a general mechanism for nanocrystal shape control.

Fluorescence enhancement of the silver nanoparticales--curcumin-cetyltrimethylammonium bromide-nucleic acids system and its analytical application

It is found that silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) can further enhance the fluorescence intensity of curcumin (CU)-cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)-nucleic acids and improve its anti-photobleaching activity. Under optimum conditions, the enhanced fluorescence intensity is proportion to the concentration of nucleic acids in the range of 2.0 x 10(-8)-1.0 x 10(-6) g mL(-1) for fish sperm DNA (fsDNA), 2.0 x 10(-8)-1.0 x 10(-6) g mL(-1) for calf thymus DNA (ctDNA), 1.0 x 10(-8)-1.0 x 10(-6) g mL(-1) for yeast RNA (yRNA), and their detection limits (S/N = 3) are 8.0 ng mL(-1), 10.5 ng mL(-1) and 5.8 ng mL(-1), respectively. This method is used for determining the concentration of DNA in actual sample with satisfactory results. The interaction mechanism is also studied.

Nanocrystalline intermetallics on mesoporous carbon for direct formic acid fuel cell anodes

Shape- and size-controlled supported metal and intermetallic nanocrystallites are of increasing interest because of their catalytic and electrocatalytic properties. In particular, intermetallics PtX (X = Bi, Pb, Pd, Ru) are very attractive because of their high activity as fuel-cell anode catalysts for formic acid or methanol oxidation. These are normally synthesized using high-temperature techniques, but rigorous size control is very challenging. Even low-temperature techniques typically produce nanoparticles with dimensions much greater than the optimum <6 nm required for fuel cell catalysis. Here, we present a simple and robust, chemically controlled process for synthesizing size-controlled noble metal or bimetallic nanocrystallites embedded within the porous structure of ordered mesoporous carbon (OMC). By using surface-modified ordered mesoporous carbon to trap the metal precursors, nanocrystallites are formed with monodisperse sizes as low as 1.5 nm, which can be tuned up to ∼3.5 nm. To the best of our knowledge, 3-nm ordered mesoporous carbon-supported PtBi nanoparticles exhibit the highest mass activity for formic acid oxidation reported to date, and over double that of Pt-Au.

Facile fabrication of porous ZnO microspheres by thermal treatment of ZnS microspheres

Porous ZnO microspheres with an average size of around 500 nm had been synthesized by thermal treatment of ZnS microspheres in an air atmosphere. The ZnS spheres had been synthesized at a low temperature of 100 degrees C by using L-cysteine (an ordinary amino acid) as a sulfur source with the assist of gelatin. By combining the results of X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), and Fourier transformation infrared spectra (FTIR), a structural and morphological characterization of the products was performed. The photocatalytic activity of ZnS microspheres and porous ZnO microspheres have been tested by degradation of Rhodamine-B (RB) under UV light, indicating that the porous ZnO microspheres showed enhanced photocatalytic performance compared to ZnS microspheres and commercial Degussa P25 TiO(2).

Synthesis and oxygen reduction activity of shape-controlled Pt(3)Ni nanopolyhedra

Platinum-based alloys have been extensively shown to be effective catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Most of these catalysts are nanoparticles without shape control. Recently, extended Pt(3)Ni(111) surfaces prepared in ultrahigh vacuum were demonstrated to possess enhanced ORR catalytic activity as compared to the state-of-the-art carbon supported Pt (Pt/C) nanoparticle catalysts. How and whether this promising surface can be transformed into practical nanoscale electrocatalysts used in PEMFCs remain a challenge. We report a new wet-chemical approach of preparing monodisperse Pt(3)Ni nanoctahedra and nanocubes terminated with {111} and {100} facets, respectively. We further show that the ORR activity on the Pt(3)Ni nanoctahedra is approximately 5-fold higher than that of nanocubes with a similar size. Comparison of ORR activity between carbon-supported Pt(3)Ni nanoctahedra and commercial Pt/C reveals that the Pt(3)Ni nanoctahedra are highly active electrocatalysts. This synthetic strategy may be extended to the preparation of other shape-controlled fuel cell electrocatalysts.

Ultrafast growth of highly branched palladium nanostructures for catalysis

Palladium is widely used as a catalyst in pharmaceutical and chemical syntheses as well as in the reduction of harmful exhaust emissions. Therefore, the development of high performance palladium catalysts is an area of major concern. In this paper, we present the synthesis of highly branched palladium nanostructures in a simple solution phase reaction at room temperature. By varying the nature of the organic stabilizer system we demonstrate control over the reaction kinetics and hence the shape of the nanostructures. Investigations into the structural evolution of the nanostructures show that they form from multiply twinned face centered cubic (fcc) nanoparticle nuclei. Reaction kinetics then determine the resulting shape where ultrafast growth is shown to lead to the highly branched nanostructures. These results will contribute greatly to the understanding of complex nanoparticle growth from all fcc metals. The nanostructures then show excellent catalytic activity for the hydrogenation of nitrobenzene to aniline.

Three-dimensional Pt-on-Pd bimetallic nanodendrites supported on graphene nanosheet: facile synthesis and used as an advanced nanoelectrocatalyst for methanol oxidation

Graphene nanosheet, the hottest material in physics and materials science, has been studied extensively because of its unique electronic, thermal, mechanical, and chemical properties arising from its strictly 2D structure and because of its potential technical applications. Particularly, these remarkable characteristics enable it to be a promising candidate as a new 2D support to load metal nanoparticles (NPs) for application in fuel cells. However, constructing high-quality graphene/bimetallic NP hybrids with high electrochemical surface area (ECSA) remains a great challenge to date. In this paper, we demonstrate for the first time a wet-chemical approach for the synthesis of high-quality three-dimensional (3D) Pt-on-Pd bimetallic nanodendrites supported on graphene nanosheets (TP-BNGN), which represents a new type of graphene/metal heterostructure. The resulting hybrids were characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution TEM (HRTEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Raman spectroscopy, and electrochemical technique. It is found that small single-crystal Pt nanobranches supported on Pd NCs with porous structure and good dispersion were directly grown onto the surface of graphene nanosheets, which exhibits high electrochemical active area. Furthermore, the number of nanobranches for Pt-on-Pd bimetallic nanodendrites on the surface of graphene nanosheets could be easily controlled via simply changing the synthetic parameters, thus resulting in the tunable catalytic properties. Most importantly, the electrochemical data indicate that the as-prepared graphene/bimetallic nanodendrite hybrids exhibited much higher electrocatalytic activity toward methanol oxidation reaction than the platinum black (PB) and commercial E-TEK Pt/C catalysts.

Preparation of inorganic materials using ionic liquids

Conventional synthesis of inorganic materials relies heavily on water and organic solvents. Alternatively, the synthesis of inorganic materials using, or in the presence of, ionic liquids represents a burgeoning direction in materials chemistry. Use of ionic liquids in solvent extraction and organic catalysis has been extensively studied, but their use in inorganic synthesis has just begun. Ionic liquids are a family of non-conventional molten salts that can act as templates and precursors to inorganic materials, as well as solvents. They offer many advantages, such as negligible vapor pressures, wide liquidus ranges, good thermal stability, tunable solubility for both organic and inorganic molecules, and much synthetic flexibility. In this Review, the use of ionic liquids in the preparation of several categories of inorganic and hybrid materials (i.e., metal structures, non-metal elements, silicas, organosilicas, metal oxides, metal chalcogenides, metal salts, open-framework structures, ionic liquid-functionalized materials, and supported ionic liquids) is summarized. The status quo of the research field is assessed, and some future perspectives are furnished.