Bimetallic nanocatalysts are interesting for many applications in catalysis and green chemistry.In particular, alloy nanoparticles with combinations of late transition metals with group-13 metals such as Pd/Ga show interesting properties in selective hydrogenation of alkynes.Typically, bimetallic nanoparticles are obtained by co-reduction techniques, e.g. the well-known polyol process.However, in case of components with non favorable reduction potential, such as Al, Zn etc., alternative techniques are necessary. For many years we have been investigating the coordination chemistry of carbenoid group-13 organometallic species, typically ECp* (E = Al, Ga, In), at transition metal complexes [Ma(ECp*)bLc]and we used the gained knowledge for developing a novel non aqueous precursor chemistry for the related binary intermetallic nanoparticles as dispersion colloids, including Cu1-xZnx, Cu1-xAlx or Ni1-xAlx.Herein, we will present our recent studies on the comparison of the single-source and dual-source concept for thermally induced hydrogenolytic synthesis of Ni/Ga nanoparticles (Fig.1.) in non aqueous organic media by employing either [Ni(GaCp*)n(PR3)4-n] (n = 1, 2, 3; R = Me, Ph, Cy), or by using a mixture of [Ni(COD)2] and GaCp*. The Ni/Ga materials are formed as HDA stabilized colloidal nanoparticles. The obtained phase compositions, particle size, morphology and preliminary data on hydrogenation catalysis in dependence of choice of precursors and conditions will be discussed.  Figure 1 : TEM-image of HDA stabilized Ni/Ga-nanoparticles (15 � 3 nm), synthesized by using [Ni(COD)2] and GaCp* (FEI Technai f20, 200kV).

Nonaqueous organometallic synthesis of intermetallic nickel-gallium nanoparticles and colloids

246th National Meeting (2013)

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