Oxygen Reduction Reaction: Tuning Surface Structure and Strain in Pd–Pt Core–Shell Nanocrystals for Enhanced Electrocatalytic Oxygen Reduction (Small 7/2017)

In article number 1603423, He Tian, Jianbo Wu, Hui Zhang, and co-workers develop a thermodynamically controlled method for the epitaxial growth of atomically layered Pt shells on icosahedral, octahedral, and cubic Pd seeds, with Pd-Pt core-shell icosahedra being the best electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction. The cover image shows that most of Pt shells in the icosahedra are dominated by compressive strain with a proper size, while compressive and tensile strains co-exist in Pt shells of the octahedra, which might be responsible for their different catalytic properties.