Sintering-Resistant Nanoparticles in Wide-Mouthed Compartments for Sustained Catalytic Performance.
Particle sintering is one of the most significant impediments to functional nanoparticles in many valuable applications especially catalysis. Herein, we report that sintering-resistant nanoparticle systems can be realized through a simple materials-design which maximizes the particle-to-particle traveling distance of neighbouring nanoparticles. As a demonstration, Pt nanoparticles were placed apart from each other in wide-mouthed compartments tailored on the surface of self-assembled silica nanosheets. These Pt nanoparticles retained their particle size after calcination at elevated temperatures because the compartment wall elongates the particle-to-particle traveling distance to preclude the possibility of sintering. Moreover, these Pt nanoparticles in wide-mouthed compartments were fully accessible to the environment and exhibited much higher catalytic activity for CO oxidation than the nanoparticles confined in the nanochannels of mesoporous silica. The proposed materials-design strategy is applicable not only to industrial catalysts operating in harsh conditions, but also opens up possibilities in developing advanced nanoparticle-based materials with sustained performance.
World Premier International (WPI) Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Namiki 1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan.
Jia
J
Liu
World Premier International (WPI) Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Namiki 1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan.
Qingmin
Q
Ji
Environment and Energy Materials Division, National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Namiki 1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan.
Tsubasa
T
Imai
World Premier International (WPI) Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Namiki 1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan.
Katsuhiko
K
Ariga
Environment and Energy Materials Division, National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Namiki 1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan.
Hideki
H
Abe