Core-shell bimetallic nanoparticles robustly fixed on the outermost surface of magnetic silica microspheres

Sci Rep. 2013:3:1497. doi: 10.1038/srep01497.

Abstract

The major challenges in practically utilising the immense potential benefits of nanomaterials are controlling aggregation, recycling the nanomaterials, and fabricating well-defined nanoparticulate materials using innovative methods. We present a novel innovative synthetic strategy for core-shell bimetallic nanoparticles that are well-defined, ligand-free, and robustly fixed on the outermost surface of recyclable magnetic silica microspheres. The strategy includes seeding, coalescing the seeds to cores, and then growing shells from the cores on aminopropyl-functionalised silica microspheres so that the cores and aminopropyl moieties are robustly embedded in the shell materials. The representative Au-Ag bimetallic nanoparticles fixed on the microsphere showed excellent catalytic performance that remained consistent during repeated catalytic cycles.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't