Direct synthesis of bimetallic Pd3Ag nanoalloys from bulk Pd3Ag alloy

We report a transformative, all inorganic synthesis method of preparing supported bimetallic Pd(3)Ag alloy nanoparticles. The method involves breaking down bulk Pd(3)Ag alloy into the nanoparticles in liquid lithium, converting metallic Li to LiOH, and transferring Pd(3)Ag nanoparticles/LiOH mixture onto non-water-soluble supports, followed by leaching off the LiOH with water under ambient conditions. The size of the resulting Pd(3)Ag nanoparticles was found narrowly distributed around 2.3 nm characterized by transmission electron microscope (TEM). In addition, studies by X-ray diffraction (XRD), extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy, and X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy showed that the resulting Pd(3)Ag nanoparticles inherited similar atomic ratio and alloy structure as the starting material. The synthesized Pd(3)Ag nanoparticles exhibited excellent catalytic activity toward hydrogenation of acrolein to propanal.