One-pot environmentally friendly approach toward highly catalytically active bimetal-nanoparticle-graphene hybrids

A one-pot universal approach with simple metal sputtering onto room temperature ionic liquids has been developed to prepare bimetal-nanoparticle (NP)-graphene hybrids, and the process is environmentally friendly and completely free of additives and byproducts. The graphene-supported bimetallic NPs have an Ag-based core and an Au/Pd-rich shell, demonstrated by the scanning transmission electron microscopy. The X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy using synchrotron radiation reveals the occurrence of charge redistribution at both the Ag@Au and Ag@Pd core-shell interfaces. The as-prepared Ag@Au and Ag@Pd bimetal-NP-graphene hybrids are highly catalytically active for reduction of 4-nitrophenol, whose catalytic activity is superior to the corresponding monometallic hybrids. The catalytic superiority is ascribed to the electronic structure modification and morphological irregularity of the graphene-supported bimetallic NPs.