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Thermally stable Pt/mesoporous silica core–shell nanocatalysts for high-temperature reactions

Nature Materials volume 8, pages 126–131 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Recent advances in colloidal synthesis enabled the precise control of the size, shape and composition of catalytic metal nanoparticles, enabling their use as model catalysts for systematic investigations of the atomic-scale properties affecting catalytic activity and selectivity. The organic capping agents stabilizing colloidal nanoparticles, however, often limit their application in high-temperature catalytic reactions. Here, we report the design of a high-temperature-stable model catalytic system that consists of a Pt metal core coated with a mesoporous silica shell (Pt@mSiO2). Inorganic silica shells encaged the Pt cores up to 750 ∘C in air and the mesopores providing direct access to the Pt core made the Pt@mSiO2 nanoparticles as catalytically active as bare Pt metal for ethylene hydrogenation and CO oxidation. The high thermal stability of Pt@mSiO2 nanoparticles enabled high-temperature CO oxidation studies, including ignition behaviour, which was not possible for bare Pt nanoparticles because of their deformation or aggregation. The results suggest that the Pt@mSiO2 nanoparticles are excellent nanocatalytic systems for high-temperature catalytic reactions or surface chemical processes, and the design concept used in the Pt@mSiO2 core–shell catalyst can be extended to other metal/metal oxide compositions.

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Figure 1: Schematic representation of the synthesis of Pt@mSiO2 nanoparticles.
Figure 2: TEM and XRD characterizations of TTAB-capped Pt and as-synthesized Pt@SiO2 core–shell nanoparticles.
Figure 3: Thermal stability of Pt@mSiO2 nanoparticles.
Figure 4: Structural characterization of Pt@mSiO2 nanoparticles calcined at 350 ∘C.
Figure 5
Figure 6: Pt nanoparticle morphologies before and after CO oxidation.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Chemical Sciences, Geological and Biosciences and Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering of the U.S. Department of Energy under contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. We thank A. P. Alivisatos and his group for the use of TEM and XRD equipment. We also thank J. N. Kuhn, Y.-w. Jun and J. Park for helpful comments and S. M. Ko for illustrations in Fig. 1.

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  1. Department of Chemistry, University of California and Chemical Sciences and Materials Sciences Divisions, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA

    Sang Hoon Joo, Jeong Young Park, Chia-Kuang Tsung, Yusuke Yamada, Peidong Yang & Gabor A. Somorjai

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  1. Sang Hoon Joo
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Contributions

G.A.S., P.Y., S.H.J. and J.Y.P. designed the research. S.H.J, C.-K.T. and Y.Y. carried out the synthesis and characterizations of nanoparticles. J.Y.P. and S.H.J. carried out catalysis experiments. S.H.J., J.Y.P., P.Y. and G.A.S. wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Gabor A. Somorjai.

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Joo, S., Park, J., Tsung, CK. et al. Thermally stable Pt/mesoporous silica core–shell nanocatalysts for high-temperature reactions. Nature Mater 8, 126–131 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2329

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