Graphdiyne oxides as excellent substrate for electroless deposition of Pd clusters with high catalytic activity

Graphdiyne (GDY), a novel kind of two-dimensional carbon allotrope consisting of sp- and sp(2)-hybridized carbon atoms, is found to be able to serve as the reducing agent and stabilizer for electroless deposition of highly dispersed Pd nanoparticles owing to its low reduction potential and highly conjugated electronic structure. Furthermore, we observe that graphdiyne oxide (GDYO), the oxidation form of GDY, can be used as an even excellent substrate for electroless deposition of ultrafine Pd clusters to form Pd/GDYO nanocomposite that exhibits a high catalytic performance toward the reduction of 4-nitrophenol. The high catalytic performance is considered to benefit from the rational design and electroless deposition of active metal catalysts with GDYO as the support.