Understanding and controlling the structure and segregation behaviour of AuRh nanocatalysts

Laurent Piccolo*, Zi Li, Ilker Demiroglu, Florian Moyon, Zere Konuspayeva, Gilles Berhault, Pavel Afanasiev, Williams Lefebvre, Jun Yuan, Roy L. Johnston

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

27 Citations (Scopus)
150 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Heterogeneous catalysis, which is widely used in the chemical industry, makes a great use of supported late-transition-metal nanoparticles, and bimetallic catalysts often show superior catalytic performances as compared to their single metal counterparts. In order to optimize catalyst efficiency and discover new active combinations, an atomic-level understanding and control of the catalyst structure is desirable. In this work, the structure of catalytically active AuRh bimetallic nanoparticles prepared by colloidal methods and immobilized on rutile titania nanorods was investigated using aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy. Depending on the applied post-treatment, different types of segregation behaviours were evidenced, ranging from Rh core-Au shell to Janus via Rh ball-Au cup configuration. The stability of these structures was predicted by performing density-functional-theory calculations on unsupported and titania-supported Au-Rh clusters; it can be rationalized from the lower surface and cohesion energies of Au with respect to Rh, and the preferential binding of Rh with the titania support. The bulk-immiscible AuRh/TiO2 system can serve as a model to understand similar supported nanoalloy systems and their synergistic behaviour in catalysis.

Original languageEnglish
Article number35226
JournalScientific Reports
Volume6
Early online date14 Oct 2016
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2016

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Understanding and controlling the structure and segregation behaviour of AuRh nanocatalysts'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this