A simple and effective strategy is presented to integrate individual platinum nanoparticles (NPs) into macroscopic thin films based on the reduction of organoplatinum(II) complexes [PtCl2(cod)] 1a, [PtI2(cod)] 1b (cod = 1,5-cyclooctadiene) and cis-[Pt(p-MeC6H4)2(SMe2)2] 2, at the toluene-water interface in the absence of stabilizer. Structure and morphology of the platinum NPs were characterized with X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and selected area electron diffraction (SAED) techniques. Finally, platinum thin films were deposited on glassy carbon electrode and their electro-oxidation was investigated in the methanol oxidation reaction. Pt NPs thin films showed highly improved electrocatalytical activity toward methanol oxidation as compared with commercial platinum catalysts. The present method provides a facile and low-cost strategy toward the synthesis of different electrocatalysts of noble metals for application in fuel cells.

A magnetically separable palladium complex on a GO-MnFeO surface has been synthesized by covalent immobilization of a palladium complex on the magnetic GO-MnFeO surface functionalized with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES). In general, magnetic, iron based materials (MnFeO) are effective in many catalytic reactions and are advantageous compared with other metal oxides due to their magnetic recyclability. The catalytic activities of these nanohybrids have been studied in p-nitrophenol (p-Nip) reduction. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES), X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to characterize the catalyst. The successful incorporation of the palladium complex onto GO-MnFeO has been confirmed by FT-IR spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and ICP-AES. The intact structure of GO-MnFeO was verified by X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX) and TEM. The strong reduction of p-nitrophenol was shown by the palladium complex on GO-MnFeO. This magnetic heterogeneous catalyst was well recoverable with no significant loss of activity and selectivity after five successive runs.

All around the world, researchers have raised concerns about the superlative geometrical, electronic, thermal, chemical and mechanical properties of carbon nanoparticles (CNPs). CNPs with low cost, high performance and prominent intrinsic properties have attracted extensive interest for numerous applications in various fields. Although CNPs have been studied mainly as transistors and sensors, they could also be considered as heat producers. However, this option has scarcely been studied. In this research, a CNP-based electro-thermal building block is synthesized by the arc discharge method in a carbonic medium (high-density polyethylene), and its behavior is investigated. It is shaped in the form of a metal–semiconductor–metal structure (MSM) between metallic electrodes, and in addition, the formation of two back-to-back Schottky diodes is analyzed and their use as CNP-based electro-thermal building blocks are reported.