We will present a facile synthesis of ultrathin, five-fold twinned Pd nanowires in a polyol system and an in-depth understanding of the mechanism. Our studies showed that very slow reaction kinetics and an effective capping agent are the two key factors necessary for the successful synthesis of five-fold twinned Pd nanowires. In addition, Pd nano-bipyramids and nanocubes were also selectively synthesized by manipulating the reaction kinetics. It was found that the Pd nanowires evolved into multi-twinned Pd nanoparticles if the reaction time was extended from 1 to 4 h. The oxidative etching reaction was revealed to be responsible for the distinct shape evolution by creating instabilities within the Pd nanowires. The as-prepared Pd nanowires were used as electrochemical catalysts to evaluate the catalytic activity towards formic acid oxidation, with a resultant current density 3.1 times higher than that of the commercial Pd/C. This work not only provides a facile synthetic strategy for the preparation of ultrathin Pd nanowires but also offers an in-depth understanding of the synthesis by elucidating the roles of oxidative etching, reaction kinetics, and capping agent in the synthesis.

Synthesis and characterization of Pd ultrathin nanowires

248th National Meeting (2014)

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