Here, a general method to convert colloidally prepared core@shell nanoparticles into monodisperse quinary PdCuPtNiM (M= Co, Ir, Rh, Fe, and Ru), senary PdCuPtNiCoRh, and septenary PdCuPtNiCoRhIr nanoparticles is reported.  Compositional and structural control were achieved during the preparation of the core@shell nanoparticless, which made use of seed-mediated co-reduction. Annealing of the core@shell nanoparticles facilitates intermixing and alloy formation. Scanning transmission electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy provided elemental maps of the various nanoparticles, with some segregation evident depending on the identity of M. A systematic evaluation of the electrochemical properties of the quinary nanoparticles toward the oxygen reduction reaction in alkaline media shows that most of the nanoparticles present better activities when compared to commercial Pt, with some trends from binary alloys providing insight into the observed performance trends. These multicomponentent alloy nanoparticles also showed selectivity for the 4-electron pathway and high durability. Significantly, we envision that this nanoparticles conversion strategy can be applied to other systems to achieve high quality compositionally complex alloy nanoparticles.

Synthesis of monodisperse quinary, senary, and septenary alloy nanoparticle catalysts from Core@Shell nanoparticles

ACS Spring 2022

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