One-Pot Synthesis of Single-Crystal Palladium Nanoparticles with Controllable Sizes for Applications in Catalysis and Biomedicine

Palladium (Pd) nanoparticles are of particular interest to various fundamental studies and emerging areas of technology. The properties of Pd nanoparticles have a strong dependence on particle size. Nevertheless, it has been challenging to synthesize uniform Pd nanoparticles with controllable sizes and in relatively large quantities. Herein, we demonstrate a simple yet robust one-pot synthesis for the preparation of single-crystal Pd nanoparticles with controllable sizes in the range 2–14 nm. The synthesis is simply performed by mixing polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), Na2PdCl4, and ethylene glycol in a glass vial that is placed in an oil bath with stirring. The sizes could be conveniently and tightly controlled by adjusting the amount of PVP or Na2PdCl4/PVP. The final products are highly uniform in terms of size and shape. Notably, the strategy of size control was successfully extended to Pt and Rh nanoparticles. The synthesis could be scaled up to allow for the production of gram-level quantities of Pd nanoparticles in a short period of time. The uniform Pd nanoparticles with controllable sizes are believed to find important use in different areas, such as fundamental nanoresearch, catalysis, and biomedicine.