Bifunctional Gold-Platinum Nanoparticle Catalyst: Fabrication and Characterization

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This award in the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry program supports research by Dr. Chuan-Jian Zhong at SUNY Binghamton to fabricate and characterize bifunctional nanoparticle catalysts using gold-platinum (AuPt). The objective is to establish an understanding of the design, synthetic and processing parameters that control the size and composition of these nanoparticles and their catalytic properties. A combination of the monolayer-capped nanoparticle synthesis and the thermal processing will be used to prepare the monodispersed nanoparticles with controllable composition in the 1-10 nm range over which the nanoparticles undergo a transition from atomic to metallic properties. This binary composition is expected to generate synergistic effects involving the suppression of adsorbed poisonous species and the change in electronic band structure to modify the strength of chemical adsorption. The proposed work will involve four specific tasks: (1) the preparation of AuPt nanoparticles of 1-10 nm core sizes and 0-100% Au composition via an initial synthesis of alkanethiolate-capped particles of 1-2 nm sizes and different gold contents followed by subsequent thermal processing towards controllable compositions and larger sizes, (2) the assembly onto high surface area carbon nanomaterials (spheres and nanotubes) and the carbon-supported metal oxides with controlled dispersion and mass loading, and (3) the thermal activation of the supported nanoparticles with controllable size, composition and spatial properties, and (4) the evaluation of activities of the activated nanoparticles toward electrocatalytic methanol oxidation and oxygen reduction. The thermal processing and activation data will be compared with theoretical models of coalescence and sintering. A number of surface techniques (AFM, TEM, FTIR, XPS, XRD) will be used to probe factors controlling the size and composition of the bifunctional nanoparticles and to establish their catalytic correlationThe results of the proposed work are expected to advance new applications of binary nanoparticles in both fundamental and practical heterogeneous catalysis. This project will involve local high school students and undergraduates to work during the summers. Students will be trained in areas of nanotechnology for the future workforce.