Pt3Co concave nanocubes: synthesis, formation understanding, and enhanced catalytic activity toward hydrogenation of
Chenyu Wang1, Cuikun Lin, Lihua Zhang
1Department of Chemistry, State University of New York at Binghamton, Binghamton, New York 13902 (USA), Fax: (+1) 607-777-4478.
Abstract:
We report a facile synthesis route to prepare high-quality Pt3Co nanocubes with a concave structure, and further demonstrate that these concave Pt3Co nanocubes are terminated with high-index crystal facets. The success of this preparation is highly dependent on an appropriate nucleation process with a successively anisotropic overgrowth and a preservation of the resultant high-index planes by control binding of oleyl-amine/oleic acid with a fine-tuned composition. Using a hydrogenation of styrene as a model reaction, these Pt3Co concave nanocubes as a new class of nanocatalysts with more open structure and active atomic sites located on their high-index crystallographic planes exhibit an enhanced catalytic activity in comparison with low-indexed surface terminated Pt3Co nanocubes in similar size.
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