Polyol Synthesis of Ultrathin Pd Nanowires via Attachment‐Based Growth and Their Enhanced Activity towards Formic Acid Oxidation

Abstract

Palladium wavy nanowires with an ultrathin diameter of 2 nm are synthesized using the polyol method without the involvement of any template. The success of this synthesis relies on the use of a suitable precursor that could be reduced instantaneously to generate a large number of small Pd nanoparticles. Due to a quick depletion of precursor, the small nanoparticles were unable to grow in size through atomic addition. In the case of low surface charges and high surface energies, these small nanoparticles were forced to coalesce into ultrathin nanowires with a wavy morphology via an attachment mechanism. Thanks to the unique structure and involvement of twin defects, the as-obtained Pd ultrathin nanowires show a catalytic current density of 2.5 times higher than the conventional Pd/C catalyst towards formic acid oxidation. This work not only offers a powerful route to the synthesis of nanowires through attachment-based growth but also opens the door to the rational design and fabrication of novel metal nanostructures with enhanced properties.

Palladium–iridium nanowires for enhancement of electro-catalytic activity towards oxygen reduction reaction

“…In addition, previously reported Pd-Ir bimetallic nanoparticles were universally spherical in shape with very small size. Different from the other morphologies, nanowires are more promising in catalysis field owing to their relatively large accessible area and low aggregation [21][22][23][24][25]. Therefore, the synthesis of palladium-iridium nanowires is still costly and far from trivial.…”

Effect of SDS concentration on colloidal suspensions of Ag and Au nanoparticles

“…The most common reducing agents are citrate [9][10][11][12][13] and sodium borohydride [14]. Recently polyol methods have also been developed in which reduction was carried out at high temperature using microwave [15] and thermal heating [16,17]. Generally, high molecular weight polymers [1,18,19] are used as stabilizer to stabilize the particles in nanometer regime.…”

Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid mediated synthesis of palladium nanowire networks and their enhanced electrocatalytic performance for the hydrazine oxidation reaction

“…Among the three synthesis methods, the solution phase synthesis is particularly attractive for the fabrication of Pd-NWNWs because of its simplicity and ease of scale-up. Up to now, solvothermal synthesis and an ambient solution-based technique have been successfully used to prepare high-quality Pd-NWNWs with different wire diameter [18][19][20][21].…”