(600a) Continuous Production of Uniform Carbon-Supported Catalysts of Metal Nanocubes and Nanooctahedra Using Carbon Monoxide-Mediated Processes

Current technology for the production of nanoparticles often results in a broad distribution in size, shape and composition.  Thus the products cannot meet the requirement when high-level control of such structural parameters are required.  Although the conventional colloidal chemistry approach can generate nanoparticulates with well-defined size and morphology, the scaled-up process needs to be developed to meet the requirement for the mass manufacturing. In this talk, I will discuss our current attempt to bridge the gap between the laboratory work and industrial application.  With CO as a major species to mediate the surface structures of metals and to reduce the salt precursor, highly uniform cubic Pt/C with narrow size distribution can be synthesized in a continuous fashion.  Platinum alloy and other metal nanoparticles can also be produced with high-level controls over shape and composition.  Our systematic studies demonstrate that capping ligands of alkylamine can play several important roles, including the dispersion of metal nanoparticles on the support. The carbon-supported Pt nanocubes are also examined as electrocatalysts.  They exhibit high catalytic activity towards methanol electrooxidation when compared to commercial Pt/C catalyst.