Synthesis of template-induced hollow nanostructures and study on their heterogeneous catalytic properties

Abstract

Research for the metal nanoparticles and nanostructures is under active discussion and development in the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology due to their promising applicable potentials. The properties of the metal nanostructures are sensitive to their size, composition, morphology (described by the shape, dimensional anisotropy, structure, and crystallinity). Most of all, thanks to their unique property, hollow nanostructures with porous framework have advantages of enhancing the catalytic activity and stability or optimizing the catalytic efficiency. In chapter 2, the study on the multi-metallic alloy nanotubes with nanoporous framework was de-scribed. co-reduction of multiple metal precursors with sodium citrate in the presence of ZnO nanowires rapidly yielded Pt-Pd, Pt-Ag, and Pd-Ag binary alloy nanotubes, as well as Pt-Pd-Ag ternary alloy nanotubes. The pre-pared multi-metallic nanotubes possess nanoporous frameworks composed of three-dimensionally intercon-nected nanoparticles, resulting in improved catalytic activities and stabilities toward alcohol electro-oxidation as well as mechanical robustness. In chapter 3, the study on one-pot self-templating synthesis of Pt hollow nanostructures and their cata-lytic properties for CO oxidation was described. well-defined Pt hollow nanostructures with octahedral and hexagonal frame-like morphologies were prepared by a facile one-pot self-templating route with no assistance of preformed template or shape-directing agent. The hexagonal frame-like Pt hollow structures exhibited signif-icantly enhanced catalytic activity toward CO oxidation reaction compared to the octahedral Pt hollow nanostructures due to their higher oxidation state of Pt.