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Toward affordable and sustainable use of precious metals in catalysis and nanomedicine

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Abstract

Precious metals represent some of the least abundant elements in the earth’s crust. There is an urgent need to maximize the utilization efficiency of these metals and thereby attain affordable and sustainable products. One approach for achieving this goal is based on the development of hollow nanocrystals with a well-controlled surface structure, together with a wall thickness kept below 2 nm, or roughly 10 layers of atoms. The hollow structure eliminates the waste of interior atoms and creates an inner surface, while the controllable surface structures contribute to the optimization of catalytic activity and selectivity. In this article, we begin with a brief introduction to two methods that have been developed for the synthesis of hollow nanocrystals: the first relying on the galvanic replacement with a sacrificial template, and the second involving layer-by-layer deposition of metal atoms followed by etching. We then showcase some remarkable properties and applications of this novel class of nanostructures, including their use as effective catalysts for energy conversion, photoresponsive carriers for controlled release and drug delivery, and theranostic agents. A discussion of the existing barriers to their commercialization is also presented.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by research grants from the National Science Foundation (DMR-1505400 and CHE-1505441), the National Institutes of Health (R01 CA138527), and startup funds from the Georgia Institute of Technology. We are grateful to our collaborators for their invaluable contributions to this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Georgia Institute of Technology, USA

    Younan Xia, Ming Zhao & Da Huo

  2. University of Toronto, Canada

    Xue Wang

Authors
  1. Younan Xia
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  2. Ming Zhao
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  4. Da Huo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Younan Xia.

Additional information

This article is based on the MRS Medal Lecture “Toward Affordable and Sustainable Use of Noble-Metal Nanocrystals in Catalysis and Nanomedicine,” presented by Younan Xia at the 2017 MRS Fall Meeting in Boston, Mass.

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Xia, Y., Zhao, M., Wang, X. et al. Toward affordable and sustainable use of precious metals in catalysis and nanomedicine. MRS Bulletin 43, 860–869 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1557/mrs.2018.262

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