Title of Dissertation/Thesis: Architecturally Controlled Bimetallic Nanoparticles for Heterogeneous Catalysis Shenghu Zhou, Doctor of Philosophy, 2007 Thesis Directed By: Professor Bryan W. Eichhorn Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry This work develops synthetic methods for architecturally controlled AuPt and CuPt bimetallic nanomaterials. The AuPt heteroaggregate, AuPt alloy spherical na...

Bimetallic Pd−Au clusters with (Pd/Au)at compositions of 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 narrowly distributed in size were prepared using colloidal methods with reagents containing only C, H, and O atoms, specifically polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as protecting species and ethanol as the organic reductant. Synthesis protocols involved contacting a solution of Au precursors with nearly monodisperse Pd clusters. The...

We examine the effect of external electric fields on the behavior of colloidal silica rods. We find that the electric fields can be used to induce para-nematic and para-smectic phases, and to reduce the number of defects in smectic phases. At high field strengths, a new crystal structure was observed that consisted of strings of rods ordered in a hexagonal pattern in which neighboring rods were...

Above a certain density threshold, suspensions of rodlike colloidal particles form system-spanning networks. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we investigate how the depletion forces caused by spherical particles affect these networks in isotropic suspensions of rods. Although the depletion forces are strongly anisotropic and favor alignment of the rods, the percolation threshold of the rods decre...

In this study, a new and convenient one step approach is described for synthesizing shape controlled PdPt bimetallic nanoparticles. It is found that the resultant morphologies of these PdPt nanoparticles can be well controlled by simply altering the participation of different halide ions that serve as shape controlling agents in the reaction solution. The dendritic core-shell PdPt bimetallic na...

This article focuses on contact electrification from thermodynamic equilibration of the electrochemical potential of the electrons of two conductors upon contact. The contact potential difference generated in bimetallic macro- and nanosystems, the Fermi level after the contact, and the amount and location of the charge transferred from one metal to the other are discussed. The three geometries ...

Engineering a bimetallic system with complementary chemical properties can be an effective way of tuning catalytic activity. In this work, CO oxidation on CeO2(111)supported Pd-based bimetallic nanorods was investigated using density functional theory calculations corrected by on-site Coulomb interactions. We studied a series of CeO2(111)supported Pd-based bimetallic nanorods (Pd−X, where X = A...

Bimetallic nanoparticles with core-shell structures usually display enhanced catalytic properties due to the lattice strain created between the core and shell regions. In this study, we demonstrate the application of bimetallic Au-Pd nanoparticles with an Au core and a thin Pd shell as cathode catalysts in microbial fuel cells, which represent a promising technology for wastewater treatment, wh...