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Microfluidic-enabled ambient-temperature synthesis of ultrasmall bimetallic nanoparticles

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Abstract

The production of bimetallic nanoparticles with ultrasmall sizes is the constant pursuit in chemistry and materials science because of their promising applications in catalysis, electronics and sensing. Here we report ambient-temperature preparation of bimetallic NPs with tunable size and composition using microfluidic-controlled co-reduction of two metal precursors on silicon surface. Instead of free diffusion of metal ions in bulk system, microfluidic flow could well control the local ions concentration, thus leading to homogenous and controllable reduction rate among different nucleation sites. By controlling precursor concentration, flow rate and reaction time, we rationally design a series of bimetallic NPs including Ag-Cu, Ag-Pd, Cu-Pt, Cu-Pd and Pt-Pd NPs with ultrasmall sizes (∼ 3.0 nm), tight size distributions (relative standard deviation (RSD) < 21%), clean surface, and homogenous elemental compositions among particles (standard deviation (SD) of weight ratios < 3.5%). This approach provides a facile, green and scalable method toward the synthesis of diverse bimetallic NPs with excellent activity.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Prof. Chengxi Cao (Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China), Prof. Shuit-Tong Lee, Prof. Tao Cheng, Prof. Zhaokui Wang and Dr. Muhan Cao (Soochow University, China) for their general help and valuable suggestions. We appreciate financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21825402 and 22074101), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province of China (No. BK20191417) and the Program for Jiangsu Specially-Appointed Professors to the Prof. Yao He, a project funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD), 111 Project as well as the Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology (NANO-CIC).

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  1. Huayi Shi and Bin Song contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Nanoscale Biochemical Analysis, Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials (FUNSOM) and Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, China

    Huayi Shi, Bin Song, Runzhi Chen, Guyue Hu, Jing Li, Jinhua Wang, Xinyu Meng, Houyu Wang & Yao He

  2. Department of Instrument Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Qiang Zhang

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  1. Huayi Shi
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  2. Bin Song
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  7. Jinhua Wang
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Correspondence to Houyu Wang or Yao He.

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Shi, H., Song, B., Chen, R. et al. Microfluidic-enabled ambient-temperature synthesis of ultrasmall bimetallic nanoparticles. Nano Res. 15, 248–254 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3466-0

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