Intermetallic nanoparticles are promising catalytic materials. Their ordered crystal structures can provide well-defined, isolated active sites for catalysis and their ordered heterometallic bonding can limit metal leaching during catalysis. Still, the synthesis of intermetallic nanoparticles as monodisperse samples has been limited. This limitation arises because typically random alloyed nanoparticles are prepared first then annealed at high temperatures for long durations on a catalyst support; this process results in particle coalescence and other ripening processes. However, we have found that overgrowth on random alloyed nanoparticles in solution can facilitate the disorder-to-order phase transformation under milder conditions. This overgrowth process is accompanied with preservation of the initial nanoparticle monodispersity and advances our understanding of how nanoparticle size influences the temperature at which the disorder-to-order transition occurs.

On the disorder-to-order transition in the synthesis of intermetallic nanoparticles

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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