Designing and synthesizing noble metal nanostructures with tunable porosity and nanoscopic intricacies is crucial for highly augmented surface-properties and as gateway to the wide range of applications. Here, we develop a pore-engineered nanoreactor (PENR)-based approach towards the synthesis of porous platinum nanodendrites (PtNDs) of ‘yolk-in-shell’ and ‘shell-in-shell’ morphologies and with tunable nanoscale porosity. In our strategy, first, various silica-based PENRs with variable porosity and each containing single Au-seed, were synthesized by successive base-catalyzed condensation reaction of a mixture of aminoalkyl-organosilanes in a one-pot reverse-microemulsion strategy, followed by selective silica-hydrolysis reactions. The key strategy involved the addition of different silanes at different stages of silica-condensation, rendering appropriately located fragile and rigid silica regions in silica nanospheres, which were conveniently carved in to a ‘termite-nest’ like structure with amine-rich nano-compartments. Further, growth of different PtNDs was chemically guided by metallophilic amine-groups through the pores and channels of nanoreactors and overall morphologies of PtNDs were highly customizable by the different confined nanospaces inside PENRs.

Pore-engineered silica nanoreactors for chemical interaction-guided confined synthesis of porous platinum-nanodendrites

2019 Spring National Meeting

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