Metallic and bimetallic nanoparticles are becoming increasingly important due to their catalytic applications. The formation of two dimensional nanoparticle assemblies that do not aggregate on various functionalized surfaces is of considerable interest. The present ongoing research involves the formation of palladium-gold (Pd-Au) bimetallic nanoparticle assemblies directly on silicon and indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass surfaces. Varying ratios of gold and palladium are used to generate nine unique combinations ranging from only palladium to only gold. Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) is used to characterize the structure of the nanoparticles and surface zeta potential measurement is used to follow the change in surface-charge during different step of the synthetic process. The catalytic applications of each catalyst toward methanol oxidation are observed electrochemically using cyclic voltammetry. Ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy is used to observe the optical properties of the bimetallic nanoparticles, giving insight on their alloy or core-shell structure. The catalytic activities of these Pd-Au bimetallic nanoparticle assemblies are assessed for methanol oxidation reaction. As part of our ongoing research, the catalytic activities of these Pd-Au based nanoparticle assemblies will be compared with our previous studies related to palladium and gold nanoparticle assemblies. In addition, palladium-gold bimetallic nanoparticle assemblies generated on ITO surface are also used as catalyst for reduction of 4-nitrophenol into 4-aminophenol in presence of excess sodium borohydride. The course of the reaction is followed by UV-Visible response to calculate the apparent rate constant of the reaction with varying composition of  palladium-gold bimetallic nanoparticles.

In situ generated surface-bound palladium-gold bimetallic nanoparticles and their potential towards electrochemical methanol oxidation

248th National Meeting (2014)

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