MIAMI UNIVERSITY the Graduate School Certificate for Approving The
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MIAMI UNIVERSITY The Graduate School Certificate for Approving the Dissertation We hereby approve the Dissertation of Yongan Tang Candidate for the Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Director Dr. Shouzhong Zou Chair Dr. Neil D. Danielson Reader Dr. Andre J. Sommer Reader Dr. Hong Wang Graduate School Representative Dr. Shashi B. Lalvani ABSTRACT SYNTHESIS AND ELECTROCATALYSIS OF METAL NANOMATERIALS by Yongan Tang Direct liquid fuel cells, such as the direct formic acid fuel cell, have attracted increasing attention due to the environmental problems caused by the usage of normal fossil fuels. The critical issues in the development of highly efficient fuel cells are the slow kinetics in anode and cathode reactions. Platinum catalysts are normally used in fuel cells to increase the reaction rates. However, the application of these catalysts is still limited due to the limited source and expensive cost, as well as catalyst poisoning during the fuel cell operation. In addition, fuel cell reactions are sensitive to the surface structure of catalysts. Thus, the investigation of synthesis and electrocatalysis of metal catalysts other than pure platinum play a significant role in the development of fuel cells. This dissertation focuses on the synthesis of shape-controlled metal nanomaterials and studies their catalytic activities toward fuel cell reactions, such as formic acid oxidation and oxygen reduction reaction, for better understanding their mechanisms that will benefit in discovering high performance catalysts. For the structure sensitive investigation of formic acid oxidation, the key is to synthesize specific facet enclosed nanocrystals. Thus, a new approach for directly synthesizing low-index palladium nanocrystals was developed, which enables the direct comparison of low-index facets of palladium catalyst toward formic acid oxidation. In addition, twinned palladium nanorods were also introduced, which have higher catalytic activity than low-index palladium nanocrystals. Furthermore, in order to obtain high- index catalytic information of palladium toward formic acid oxidation, high-index facet as well as low-index facet enclosed gold nanocrystals were synthesized and used as templates for the study of the facet effect of palladium overlayer on gold toward formic acid oxidation. For the oxygen reduction reaction, four types of platinum based alloys were synthesized and their catalytic activities toward oxygen reduction reaction were systematically compared. A simple procedure for effectively removing surfactants from shape-controlled platinum nanocubes will also be introduced in this dissertation. SYNTHESIS AND ELECTROCATALYSIS OF METAL NANOMATERIALS A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Faculty of Miami University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry by Yongan Tang Miami University Oxford, Ohio 2014 Dissertation Director: Shouzhong Zou © Yongan Tang 2014 Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Formic Acid Oxidation.......................................................................................................... 5 1.2 Oxygen Reduction Reaction.................................................................................................. 8 1.3 Surfactant Removal in Nanoparticles .................................................................................. 11 1.4 Dissertation Goals ............................................................................................................... 12 1.5 References ........................................................................................................................... 15 Chapter 2: Seedless synthesis of low-index palladium nanocrystals and their catalytic activity toward formic acid oxidation ........................................................................................................ 19 2.1 Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 20 2.2 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 21 2.3 Experimental Section .......................................................................................................... 22 2.3.1 Materials. ...................................................................................................................... 22 2.3.2 Synthesis of polyhedral Pd nanocrystals. ..................................................................... 22 2.3.3 Electrochemical measurement. ..................................................................................... 23 2.3.4 Instrumentation. ............................................................................................................ 23 2.4 Results and Discussion ........................................................................................................ 23 2.4.1 Synthesis and characterization of polyhedral Pd nanocrystals. .................................... 23 2.4.2 Growth mechanisms of polyhedral palladium nanocrystals ......................................... 32 2.4.3 Facet-dependent formic acid oxidation on palladium nanocrystals ............................. 40 2.5 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 42 2.6 References ........................................................................................................................... 43 Chapter 3: Length tunable penta-twinned palladium nanorods: seedless synthesis and electrooxidation of formic acid ..................................................................................................... 45 3.1 Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 46 3.2 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 47 3.3 Experimental Section .......................................................................................................... 48 3.4 Results and Discussion ........................................................................................................ 50 3.5 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 72 3.6 References ........................................................................................................................... 73 Chapter 4: Formic acid oxidation on Pd thin film coated Au nanocrystals .................................. 75 iii 4.1 Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 76 4.2 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 77 4.3 Experimental Section .......................................................................................................... 79 4.3.1 Materials. ...................................................................................................................... 79 4.3.2 Synthesis of Au seeds. .................................................................................................. 79 4.3.3 Synthesis of low-index Au nanocrystals. ..................................................................... 79 4.3.4 Synthesis of high-index Au nanocrystals ..................................................................... 80 4.3.5 Electrochemical measurement. ..................................................................................... 80 4.3.6 Instrumentation. ............................................................................................................ 81 4.4 Results and Discussion ........................................................................................................ 82 4.4.1 Synthesis and characterization of Au nanocrystals ...................................................... 82 4.4.2 Shape dependence of formic acid oxidation at Pd monolayer on Au nanocrystals ...... 86 4.4.3 Thickness-dependence of formic acid oxidation on Pd thin layers coated on Au nanocrystals ......................................................................................................................... 100 4.5 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 107 4.6 References ......................................................................................................................... 108 Chapter 5: Comparison of Oxygen Reduction Reaction Activity of Pt-Alloy Nanocubes ......... 110 5.1 Abstract ............................................................................................................................. 111 5.2 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 112 5.3 Experimental Section ........................................................................................................ 113 5.3.1 Pt-alloy nanocubes synthesis and characterization ..................................................... 113 5.3.2 Preparation of Pt-alloy/C electrocatalysts