Size-Controlled Synthesis of CuNi Nano-Octahedra and Their Catalytic Performance towards 4-Nitrophenol Reduction Reactio
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MRS Advances © 2019 Materials Research Society DOI: 10.1557/adv.2019.47
Size-Controlled Synthesis of CuNi Nano-Octahedra and Their Catalytic Performance towards 4Nitrophenol Reduction Reaction Can Li1, Yiliang Luan1, Bo Zhao2, Amar Kumbhar3, Jiye Fang1* 1
Department of Chemistry, State University of New York at Binghamton, New York, USA.
2
College of Arts & Sciences Microscopy, Texas Tech University, Texas, USA.
3 Chapel Hill Analytical and Nanofabrication Laboratory, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
Abstract
In this work, we demonstrate a size-controlled synthesis of CuNi octahedral nanocrystals (NCs) using a hot colloidal solution approach. Two different sizes of CuNi nano-octahedra are chosen and investigated. It is determined that the reagent concentration remarkably plays a key role in the formation of the size-defined CuNi octahedral NCs. In terms of the reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP), it uncovers that the obtained CuNi octahedral NCs (in both sizes) exhibit higher catalytic activity than those of CuNi spherical NCs reported previously. It further indicates that the catalytic performance is strongly size-dependent due to their devise specific surface areas of the exposed crystallographic planes.
INTRODUCTION Bimetallic materials have attracted more attention than monometallic elements due to their unique performance toward catalysis. It has been reported that the catalytic performance of bimetallic nanocrystals (NCs) is highly dependent on their sizes, composition, and morphology[1-6]. However, most of the reported bimetallic NCs are noble metal-based nanocatalysts. Compared with these NCs, non-precious metal catalyst (NPMC) NCs as a class of devise catalysts have shown an unprecedented level of interest due to their low cost, abundant content in the Earth’s crust, and comparable or
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outstanding catalytic performance in some reaction such as oxidation, hydrogenation, and electrocatalysis. Although it is well known that some specific crystal facets on the NCs can promote the catalytic activity, there are limited studies on the synthesis of facetand size-controlled NPMC NCs[7-12]. Since the standard reduction potentials of the NPMCs are much lower than those of the noble metals, the relatively high sensitivity and instability of the NPMC NCs, especially when exposed to air or aqueous solution, make it hard to control both the crystal size and shape in their preparation process. Thus, synthesis of facet- (or shape-) and size-defined NPMC NCs still remain a challenge. In this study, we focus on two different sizes of CuNi nano-octahedral NCs prepared in a hot colloidal solution using borane morpholine (BM) as a reducing reagent as well as the capping ligand to promote rapid nucleation and to control the exposed crystallographic facets
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