Pt 3 Co Concave Nanocubes: Synthesis, Formation Understanding, and Enhanced Catalytic Activity toward Hydrogenation of Styrene

Abstract

We report a facile synthesis route to prepare high‐quality Pt 3 Co nanocubes with a concave structure, and further demonstrate that these concave Pt 3 Co nanocubes are terminated with high‐index crystal facets. The success of this preparation is highly dependent on an appropriate nucleation process with a successively anisotropic overgrowth and a preservation of the resultant high‐index planes by control binding of oleyl‐amine/oleic acid with a fine‐tuned composition. Using a hydrogenation of styrene as a model reaction, these Pt 3 Co concave nanocubes as a new class of nanocatalysts with more open structure and active atomic sites located on their high‐index crystallographic planes exhibit an enhanced catalytic activity in comparison with low‐indexed surface terminated Pt 3 Co nanocubes in similar size. Anisotropic overgrowth : Pt 3 Co concave nanocubes bounded by high‐index facets were prepared with a facile wet‐chemical method. The formation process for such concave nanostructures was systematically studied, and a plausible mechanism was proposed. These nanocrystals can be used as advanced nanocatalysts, showing high activity and reusability toward hydrogenation of styrene (see figure).