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Updated: Feb 14, 2026

Synthesis of Core-shell Lanthanide-doped Upconversion Nanocrystals for Cellular Applications
Published on: November 10, 2017
Facile synthesis of prickly platinum-palladium core-shell nanocrystals and their boosted electrocatalytic activity
Dong-Ning Li1, Ya-Mei He2, Jiu-Ju Feng2
1Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Advanced Catalysis Materials, College of Chemistry and Life Sciences, College of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, China; School of Chemistry and Biological Engineering, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou 215009, China.
Abstract:
Herein, prickly platinum-palladium core-shell nanocrystals (Pt@Pd NCs) were prepared by a facile one-pot aqueous method, only taking sodium pyrrolidone carboxylate (PCA-Na) as the structure director and stabilizing agent. The products were mainly characterized by microscopic analysis, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), followed by discussing the formation mechanism in details. The electrochemical characterizations were examined by cyclic voltammetry (CV), linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) and chronoamperometry (CA). The results revealed that the prepared architectures had the biggest current density (58.4 mA cm-2) for ethylene glycol oxidation, which is 3.5-fold, 1.2-fold, 2.3-fold and 2.4-flod enhancement relative to those of home-made single Pt nanoparticles (NPs) and Pd NPs, commercial Pt black and Pd black catalysts, respectively. Also, the obtained Pt@Pd NCs showed improved catalytic activity and stability towards glycerol oxidation and hydrogen evolution reactions compared to the references.
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