To achieve the rational design of nanostructures for superior gas sensors, the ultrasmall nanoparticles (NPs) loaded on ternary metal oxide (TMO) hollow spheres (HS) were synthesized by using the polystyrene (PS) sphere template and bimetallic metal-organic framework (BM-MOFs) mold. The zinc and cobalt based zeolite imidazole frameworks (BM-ZIFs) encapsulating ultrasmall Pd NPs (2-3 nm) were as...

First principles approach is used to examine geometric and electronic structure of the catalyst concept aimed to improve activity and utilization of precious Pt metal for oxygen reduction reaction in fuel cells. The Pt monolayers on Pd skin and Pd1−xCux inner core for various compositions x were examined by building the appropriate models starting from Pd-Cu solid solution. We provided a detail...

Density functional theory is used to explore possible mechanisms that lead to water oxidation by a bimetallic manganese catalyst developed by McKenzie and co-workers. On the basis of our calculations we propose that the key active intermediate is a mixed valent Mn(III)(μ-O)Mn(IV)-O˙ oxyl radical species, the oxyl centre being the site of nucleophilic attack by water. The mixed-valent species is...

Bimetallic platinum-copper nanoparticles on carbon support are studied as a perspective electrochemical catalyst by anomalous small-angle X-ray scattering near the Pt absorption L3-edge. The simultaneous fitting of several diffraction patterns measured at different photon energies lead to a satisfactory agreement between experimental and model curves in the assumption of core-shell structure of...

We have developed a new experimental platform for in situ scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) which allows real time, nanoscale, elemental and structural changes to be studied at elevated temperature (up to 1000 °C) and pressure (up to 1 atm). Here we demonstrate the first application of this approach to understand complex structural chang...

Versatile, highly selective, and inexpensive metal patterning techniques on various substrates are demanded for current research in microelectronic device fabrications. We present a new process for creating highly selective and cost-effective copper patterns that can be plated on virtually any substrate including plastics by combining polyelectrolyte multilayer (PEM) coatings, microcontact prin...

Highly efficient supported catalyst layers based on metallic/bimetallic (Pt, Au-Pt) nanoparticles decorated-single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) on Buckypaper (BP) for direct glucose fuel cell are presented here. The electrodes have been tested in mixed-reactant biofuel cell. High glucose-tolerance, stability and catalytic activity are observed for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) that resu...

Acetic acid is an important bulk chemical that is currently produced via methanol carbonylation using fossil based CO. Synthesis of acetic acid from the renewable and cheap CO2 is of great importance, but state of the art routes encounter difficulties, especially in reaction selectivity and activity. Here we report a route to produce acetic acid from CO2, methanol and H2. The reaction can be ef...

NiCo nanoalloy (4-6 nm) encapsulated in grapheme layers (NiCo@G) has been prepared by thermolysis of a 3D bimetallic complex CoCo[Ni(EDTA)]2·4H2O and successfully employed as a catalyst to improve the dehydrogenation performances of LiAlH4 by solid ball-milling. NiCo@G presents a superior catalytic effect on the dehydrogenation of LiAlH4. For LiAlH4 doped with 1 wt% NiCo@G (LiAlH4-1 wt% NiCo@G)...