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Pressure control as an effective method to modulate aggregative growth of nanoparticles

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Abstract

Recent studies suggested that the interactions between particles can induce aggregative nucleation and growth processes beyond those predicted by the traditional LaMer model of nanoparticle formation, but their nucleation and growth processes are still unclear. Here, we report a simple way to control the interaction between nanoparticles by manipulating the oleylamine (OAm) adsorbed on the surface of the nanoparticles. The size distributions of Ag nanoparticles produced at different reaction pressures were monitored as evidence for aggregative growth. From these kinetic data, the aggregative nucleation rate (Γ) of primary Ag nanoparticles under a 0.01 MPa was demonstrated to be faster than that under atmospheric pressure. This leads to a higher uniformity of Ag nanoparticles in a shorter time (10 min) than that achievable with previous methods. Furthermore, Ag nanoparticles supported on TiO2 exhibited a remarkable performance in the catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP). After 4 min, 4-NP was completely reduced into 4-aminophenol (4-AP).

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the Shanghai Pujiang Program (No. 17PJD012) and the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (No. 16ZR1407900).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Technology Center, China Tobacco Zhejiang Industrial Co., Ltd, Hangzhou, 310024, China

    Jian Xu, Qian Xia & Guo-Jun Zhou

  2. Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials and Research Institute of Industrial Catalysis, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200237, China

    Yuan Shu, Yang-Long Guo & Wang-Cheng Zhan

Authors
  1. Jian Xu
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  2. Yuan Shu
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  3. Qian Xia
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  4. Yang-Long Guo
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  6. Wang-Cheng Zhan
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Correspondence to Wang-Cheng Zhan.

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Xu, J., Shu, Y., Xia, Q. et al. Pressure control as an effective method to modulate aggregative growth of nanoparticles. Rare Met. 40, 1808–1816 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12598-020-01484-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12598-020-01484-4

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