Investigation of Catalytic Activity Through Controlling Its Size and Composition of RhPt Bimetallic Nanoparticles

This study shows that catalytic activity of bimetallic RhPt nanoparticle arrays under CO oxidation can be tuned by varying the size and composition of nanoparticles. The tuning of size of RhPt nanoparticles was achieved by changing concentration of rhodium and platinum precursors in one-step polyol synthesis. Two-dimensional RhPt bimetallic nanoparticle arrays in different size and composition were prepared through Langmuir-Blodgett thin film technique. CO oxidation was carried out on these two-dimensional nanoparticle arrays, revealing higher activity on the smaller nanoparticles compared to the bigger nanoparticles. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results indicate the preferential surface segregation of Rh compared to Pt on the smaller nanoparticles, which is consistent with the thermodynamic analysis. Because the catalytic activity is associated with differences in the rates of $O_2$ dissociative adsorption between Pt and Rh, this paper suppose that the surface segregation of Rh on the smaller bimetallic nanoparticles is responsible for the higher catalytic activity in CO oxidation. This result suggests a control mechanism of catalytic activity via synthetic approaches of colloid nanoparticles, with possible application in rational design of nanocatalysts.