Nanoscale alloys attract enormous research attentions in catalysis, magnetics, plasmonics and so on. Along with multicomponent synergy, quantum confinement and extreme large surface area of nanoalloys offer novel material properties, precisely and broadly tunable with chemical composition and nanoscale dimension. Despite substantial progress of nanoalloy synthesis, the randomized positional arr...

The phase diagrams of continuous binary nanoalloys are important in providing guidance for material designs and industrial applications. However, experimental determination of the nano-phase diagram is scarce since calorimetric measurements remain quite challenging at the nanoscale. Based on the size-dependent cohesive energy model, we developed a unified nano-thermodynamic model to investigate...

Fischer-Tropsch(FT) reaction involves the hydrogenation of carbon monoxide to hydrocarbons typically by group VIII metals [1]. Cobalt is one of the first metals used as FT catalyst and is typically mixed with Mn to promote carbon monoxide conversion to more valuable higher (C5+) hydrocarbons and olefins. The properties of metal catalysts can be controlled by fine-tuning chemical composition, su...

The use of magnetic nanomaterials in biosensing applications is growing as a consequence of their remarkable properties; but controlling the composition and shape of metallic nanoalloys is problematic when more than one precursor is required for wet chemistry synthesis. We have developed a successful simultaneous reduction method for preparation of near-spherical platinum-based nanoalloys conta...

Shape, stability and chemical ordering patterns of CuNi nanoalloys are studied as a function of size, composition and temperature. A new parametrization of an atomistic potential for CuNi is developed on the basis of ab initio calculations. The potential is validated against experimental bulk properties, and ab initio results for nanoalloys of sizes up to 147 atoms and for surface alloys. The p...

We present a detailed study of the catalytic activity of Au/Pd nanoalloys with Au : Pd molar ratio 75 : 25 synthesized using spherical polyelectrolyte brushes (SPB) as carrier system. The reduction of 4-nitrophenol (Nip) by sodium borohydride (BH4(-)) has been used as a model reaction. This reaction proceeds in two steps: 4-nitrophenol is first reduced to 4-hydroxylaminophenol which in a second...

Surface structure, composition and segregation properties of bimetallic nanoalloys are crucial in determining chemical reactivity and activity [1,2]. RhAg nanoalloy is of interest in catalysis since Rh, although expensive and scarce, is used in wide range of catalytic process. Alloying Rh with Ag seems reasonable due to Ag’s abundance in nature and low cost. Unfortunately, there are no stable p...

In this work, we report a facile synthesis route, structural characterization, and full atomistic simulations of gold-palladium nanoalloys. Through aberration corrected-STEM, UV-vis spectroscopy and EDS chemical analysis, we were able to determine that Au(core)-Pd(shell) bimetallic nanoparticles were formed. Using different computational approaches, we were capable of establishing how the size ...

Recent advances on synthesis, characterization, and hydrogen absorption properties of ultrasmall metal nanoparticles (defined here as objects with average size ≤3 nm) are briefly reviewed in the first part of this work. The experimental challenges encountered in performing accurate measurements of hydrogen absorption in Mgand noble metal-based ultrasmall nanoparticles are addressed. The second ...

It is difficult to fabricate high-purity amorphous FeCo alloys by traditional physical methods due to their weak glass forming ability. In this work, the fully amorphous FeCo nanoalloys with high purity and good stability have been prepared by a direct chemical reduction of Fe2+ and Co2+ ions with NaBH₄ as the reducing agent and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as the surfactant. The morphologies, su...