| Nanocage (12) |  |
#Novel Fabrication Technique Helps Produce Ultra-Thin Hollow Platinum Nanocages for Fuel cells Researchers from Georgia Tech, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Oak ridge National Laboratory,
The new method allows the production of hollow platinum nanocages with ultra-thin walls. These atomic-scale layers of platinum are produced through a solution-based approach
porous structures that induce catalytic activity within and outside the nanocages. The layers are grown on templates of palladium nanocrystal templates.
leaving behind nanocages with a diameter of approximately 20 nm, and between three and six atom-thin platinum layers.
When these nanocage structures are used in fuel cell electrodes, platinum's utilization efficiency can be increased by a factor of seven,
and Biochemistry and the School of Chemical and Biomolecular engineering at Georgia Tech. e have made hollow nanocages of platinum with walls as thin as a few atomic layers
As both the inner and outer layers of the porous nanocages play a vital role in catalytic activity,
With the use of palladium nanocrystals as templates, the nanocages can be formed in either cubic or octahedral shapes.
The surface structure is controlled by the shape of the nanocages, which further leads to modifications in the catalytic activity.
Upon evaluating the durability of the platinum nanocages for oxygen-reduction reaction, the researchers observed that there is a fall in the catalytic activity by slightly more than one-third after 10,000 operating cycles.
However, the platinum nanocages could be used in other industrial processes such as hydrogenation. Besides carrying out experimental work at Georgia Tech,
researchers at Arizona State university and Oak ridge National Laboratory mapped the nanocage structures using their specialized microscopy facilities.
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