title: Local structure and composition of PtRh nanoparticles produced through cathodic corrosion.
abstract: Alloy nanoparticles fulfill an important role in catalysis. As such, producing them in a simple and clean way is much desired. A promising alloy nanoparticle production method is cathodic corrosion, which generates particles by applying an AC voltage to an alloy electrode. However, this harsh AC potential program might affect the final elemental distribution of the nanoparticles. In this work, we address this issue by characterizing the time that is required to create 1 μmol of Rh, Pt12Rh88, Pt55Rh45and Pt nanoparticles under various applied potentials. The corrosion time measurements are complemented by structural characterization through transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and X-ray absorption spectroscopy. The corrosion times indicate that platinum and rhodium corrode at different rates and that the cathodic corrosion rates of the alloys are dominated by platinum. In addition, the structure-sensitive techniques reveal that the elemental distributions of the created alloy nanoparticles indeed exhibit small degrees of elemental segregation. These results indicate that the atomic alloy structure is not always preserved during cathodic corrosion.
authors.affiliation: Leiden Institure of Chemistry, Leiden University, PO Box 9502, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands. m.koper@lic.leidenuniv.nl.
authors.forename: Thomas J P
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5467-6151
authors.initials: TJP
authors.lastname: Hersbach
authors.affiliation: Leiden Institure of Chemistry, Leiden University, PO Box 9502, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands. m.koper@lic.leidenuniv.nl.
authors.forename: Ruud
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kortlever
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrocatalysis, J. Heyrovský Institute of Physical Chemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Dolejškova 3, 18223 Prague, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Matti
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lehtimäki
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrocatalysis, J. Heyrovský Institute of Physical Chemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Dolejškova 3, 18223 Prague, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Petr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Krtil
authors.affiliation: Leiden Institure of Chemistry, Leiden University, PO Box 9502, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands. m.koper@lic.leidenuniv.nl.
authors.forename: Marc T M
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6777-4594
authors.initials: MTM
authors.lastname: Koper