Ionic liquid-mediated synthesis of unique PtPd bimetallic particles with tiny subunits for efficient electrocatalytic and catalytic applications

Ionic liquids provide chemists with a versatile platform and many opportunities for constructing various interesting inorganic materials. Here, an ionic liquid-mediated synthesis route is proposed for the controlled synthesis of PtPd bimetallic particles. The synthesized PtPd particles have unique three dimensional nanostructures (3D) constructed by nanoparticle subunits. For the 3D nanostructures, the primary PtPd particles form aggregates with the characteristic of interparticle porosity. Among others, the Pt1Pd1 bimetallic particles exhibit superior electrocatalytic activity toward oxidation of methanol in an alkaline medium than the commercial state-of-the-art Johnson-Matthey platinum black catalyst (Hispec™ 1000). Furthermore, the catalytic activity towards p-nitrophenol reduction indicates that the synthesized Pt1Pd3 particles exhibit the highest catalytic activity in comparison with the studied various PtPd bimetallic particles, the monometallic Pt and the monometallic Pd particles. This study may pave the way for the efficient synthesis of three dimensional bimetallic nanostructures for improved catalytic applications.