The electrocatalytic reactivity of Pt nanoparticles supported on high-pressure-high-temperature diamond particles towards adsorbed CO, methanol and formic acid oxidation is investigated employing differential electrochemical mass spectrometry (DEMS). Surface treatment of diamond particles, employed as dimensionally stable electrocatalyst supports, leads to materials with surfaces featuring main...

In this work, ZnO/SiO2 nanoparticles were prepared using sol-gel method, and platinum particles were loaded on ZnO/SiO2 nanoparticles by photoreductive method. Samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The XRD patterns showed that the zinc oxide samples have a wurtzite structure (hexagonal phase...

The catalytic activity of alloy nanoparticles depends on the particle size and composition ratio of different metals. Alloy nanoparticles composed of Pd, Pt, and Au are widely used as catalysts for oxidation reactions. The catalytic activities of Pt and Au nanoparticles in oxidation reactions are known to increase as the particle size decreases and to increase on the metal-metal interface of al...

A computational strategy to design core/shell nanoparticle catalysts for oxygen reduction reactions (ORRs) is proposed based on multiscale modeling. Using a quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) coupling method, we have studied the ORR on Pt-Cu core/shell nanoparticles with the size ranging from 3 to 8 nm. We have calculated the oxygen adsorption energy on the nanoparticle surface (a de...

In this work, ZnO/SiO2 nanoparticles were prepared using sol-gel method, and platinum particles were loaded on ZnO/SiO2 nanoparticles by photoreductive method. Samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The XRD patterns showed that the zinc oxide samples have a wurtzite structure (hexagonal phase...

Metallic nanoparticles with a unique morphology were produced by combining bottom-up nucleation/growth and top-down etching for Au core-Pt shell nanoparticles. Interesting optical and electrocatalytic properties were observed for the newly formed shapes.

Rarely-observed polycrystalline twinned Pt nanoparticles (NPs) and length-controlled Pt nanorods (NRs) with exposed high index facets were prepared through an unexpectedly catalytic growth approach from low-cost Mn(3)O(4) NPs. The as-prepared Pt NRs exhibit higher catalytic activity and better stability for the oxidization of methanol than commercial Pt/C catalysts, indicating the promise of th...

We consider ways to determine the crystallographic direction of particles on carbon nanotubes, where possible from a single lattice fringe image. In our experiment, we use a Philip EM430 TEM with point resolution near 0.2nm to image Pt nanoparticles on carbon nanotubes provided by Chad Xing of UM-Rolla. We have known that Pt is a face-centered cubic (FCC) element. According to the Pt and nanotu...

Bimetallic platinum-copper nanoparticles on carbon support are studied as a perspective electrochemical catalyst by anomalous small-angle X-ray scattering near the Pt absorption L3-edge. The simultaneous fitting of several diffraction patterns measured at different photon energies lead to a satisfactory agreement between experimental and model curves in the assumption of core-shell structure of...

We fabricated a highly efficient (with a solar-to-electricity conversion efficiency (η) of 8.1%) Pt-free dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). The counter electrode was made of cobalt sulfide (CoS) nanoparticles synthesized via surfactant-assisted preparation of a metal organic framework, ZIF-67, with controllable particle sizes (50 to 320 nm) and subsequent oxidation and sulfide conversion. In con...