Supported rhodium nanoparticles in catalysis: the role of stabilizers on catalytic activity and structural features

Structure and catalytic activity of ultrasmall Rh, Pd and (Rh + Pd) nanoparticles obtained by mediated electrosynthesis

Efficient mediated electrosynthesis of catalytically active ultrasmall mono- and bimetallic nanoparticles of Rh, Pd stabilized with CTAC was carried out in water.

Effect of Nanoparticles on Modified Screen Printed Inhibition Superoxide Dismutase Electrodes for Aluminum

A novel amperometric biosensor for the determination of Al(III) based on the inhibition of the enzyme superoxide dismutase has been developed. The oxidation signal of epinephrine substrate was affected by the presence of Al(III) ions leading to a decrease in its amperometric current. The immobilization of the enzyme was performed with glutaraldehyde on screen-printed carbon electrodes modifiedwith tetrathiofulvalene (TTF) and different types ofnanoparticles. Nanoparticles of gold, platinum, rhodium and palladium were deposited on screen printed carbon electrodes by means of two electrochemical procedures. Nanoparticles were characterized trough scanning electronic microscopy, X-rays fluorescence, and atomic force microscopy. Palladium nanoparticles showed lower atomic force microscopy parameters and higher slope of aluminum calibration curves and were selected to perform sensor validation. The developed biosensor has a detection limit of 2.0 ± 0.2 μM for Al(III), with a reproducibility of 7.9% (n = 5). Recovery of standard reference material spiked to buffer solution was 103.8% with a relative standard deviation of 4.8% (n = 5). Recovery of tap water spiked with the standard reference material was 100.5 with a relative standard deviation of 3.4% (n = 3). The study of interfering ions has also been carried out.

Interface interaction induced ultra-dense nanoparticles assemblies

We demonstrate a simple and clean physical methodology for fabricating such nanoparticle assemblies (dense arrays and/or dendrites) related to the interfacial interaction between the constructed materials and the anodized aluminum oxide (AAO) porous templates. The interfacial interaction can be regulated by the surface tension of the constructed materials and the AAO membrane, and the AAO-template structure, such as pore size, membrane thickness and surface morphologies. Depending on the interfacial interaction between the constructed materials and the AAO templates, NP arrays with mean particle diameters from 3.8 ± 1.0 nm to 12.5 ± 2.9 nm, mean inter-edge spacings from 3.5 ± 1.4 nm to 7.9 ± 3.4 nm and areal densities from 5.6 × 10(11) NPs per cm(2) to 1.5 × 10(12) NPs per cm(2) are fabricated over large areas (currently ~2 cm × 3 cm). The fabrication process includes firstly thermal evaporation of metal layers no more than 10 nm thick on the pre-coated Si wafer by AAO templates with a thickness of less than 150 nm and mean pore sizes no more than 12 nm, and then removal of the AAO templates. The NP arrays can be stable for hours at a temperature slightly below the melting point of the constructed materials (e.g., ~800 °C for Au NPs for 4 hours) with little change in size and inter-particle separation. Using one of them (e.g., 11.8 nm Au NPs) as growth-oriented catalysts, ultra-thin (12.1 ± 2.3 nm) dense nanowires can be conveniently obtained. Furthermore, dendrite superstructures can be generated easily from eutectic alloy NPs with diameters of ~10 nm pre-formed by thermal evaporation of metal layers more than 20 nm thick on surface-patterned thick AAO templates (e.g., 500 nm). The resulting dendrites, dense arrays and other superstructures (i.e., nanorods and nanowires) formed using NP arrays as catalysts, should have broad applications in catalysis, information technology, photovoltaics and biomedical engineering.

Ambient Temperature, Tandem Catalytic Dehydrocoupling−Hydrogenation Reactions Using Rh Colloids and Me2NH·BH3 as a Stoichiometric H2 Source

Highly active Rh colloids, generated in situ during the catalytic dehydrocoupling of Me2NH.BH3 using [{Rh(cod)(mu-Cl)}2] as a precatalyst, are capable of efficiently hydrogenating alkenes at 25 degrees C in a one-pot procedure using only the evolved H2 from the initial dehydrocoupling reaction.