Catalytic Pd Nanoparticles Embedded in Polyelectrolyte Multilayers

摘要

Metal nanoparticles are attractive catalytic materials because their high surface area to volume ratio allows efficient use of expensive precious metals.1 In some cases, variation of nanoparticle size also affords control over catalyst reactivity.Unfortunately, however, nanoparticles often coalesce, making control over their size difficult to achieve. To overcome this challenge, a number of research groups immobilized nanoparticles on solid supports or capped the particles with ligands ranging from small molecules to block copolymers. This report describes the use of nanoparticles within multilayer polyelectrolyte films as selective catalysts. The polymer films help prevent nanoparticle aggregation, and the layer-by-layer film deposition allows control over both particle size and film thickness. More importantly, the polyelectrolyte films allow selective access to the nanoparticles that leads to selective catalysis.