Lattice-governed electrochemical catalysis: Pd-Rh nanoboxes synthesized via control of metal migration

摘要

Developing the synthesis of more sophisticated nanostructures comprising more than one late transition metal broadens the library of materials available in the quest to find suitable heterogeneous catalysts. The synthesis of well-defined multi-metal nanoparticles containing Rh element remains a challenge because of the element’s propensity toward random island and dendrite growth. Herein we report a wet chemistry method to synthesize the Pd-Rh heterogeneous nanoboxes and to fine tune their structures at atomic level. The structures of the nanoboxes were characterized by electron microscopy and a metal migration mechanism for their formation was proposed. The surfaces of nanoboxes were examined by electrochemical catalysis. We reveal that both lattice strain from the nanoscale separation of metal phases and element composition of our complex nanostructures govern the catalytic behavior.