Rational design and controlled synthesis of metallic nanoparticles (NPs) is the key to developing highly efficient and stable catalysts for some new alternative energy conversion and chemical transformation systems such as proton exchange membrane fuel cells. The organic solution based chemical synthesis provides a robust approach to monodisperse metallic NPs with precise control on NP parameters including size, shape, composition and crystal structure etc.. Based on the synthetic tuning on these parameters, the monodisperse metallic NPs can be used for the study of synthesis-catalysis correlation and the optimization of NPs catalytic performance. This dissertation begins with an overview of the background and fundamental theory of metallic NPs for catalytic applications followed by the introduction of organic solution based chemical synthesis of monodisperse NPs. It further illustrates the synthetic tuning of metallic NPs for catalytic applications by providing several monodisperse metallic NPs catalysts I developed in the past four years. These metallic NPs have been demonstrated to be the advanced catalysts for various catalytic reactions including oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), formic acid oxidation reaction (FAOR), methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) and formic acid dehydrogenation (FAD).
Zhang, Sen,
"Synthetic Tuning of Monodisperse Metallic Nanoparticles for Catalytic Applications"
(2014).
Chemistry Theses and Dissertations.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://doi.org/10.7301/Z09S1PDT
