EXPANDING PLATINUM CATALYSTS THROUGH LATTICE ENGINEERING

摘要

While platinum has been used as an important and powerful catalyst for hundreds of years, a persistent setback has always been its cost and availability. Because it is one of the rarest metals on Earth, researchers are exploring ways to benefit from platinum's unique abilities while using as little of the precious material as possible. Now, Hua Zhang and co-workers have developed a new method of achieving exactly this, using lattice expansion of metal nanoparticles to create platinum nanostructures that are not only more catalytically active than current options, but are easy to produce and extremely durable (DOI: 10.1021/jacs.1c05856).The team's process begins with palladium nanoparticles coated in a thin layer of platinum. Next hydrogen is introduced, which intercalates into the palladium's crystal lattice and converts palladium into palladium hydride. This slightly expands the palladium core, which stretches the platinum shell, similar to the rubber surface of a balloon expanding when inflated. The researchers found that these expanded lattice nanoparticles had higher catalytic activities per mass of platinum in electrocatalytic oxidation of methanol and ethanol than any other materials made previously. This method of lattice engineering could be expanded to other metal catalysts, as well, potentially leading to even more record-breaking catalytic materials.