Platinum nanoparticles are usually in the form of a suspension or colloid of nanoparticles of platinum in a fluid, usually water. A colloid is technically defined as a stable dispersion of particles in a fluid medium (liquid or gas). Spherical platinum nanoparticles can be made with sizes between about 2 and 100 nanometres (nm), depending on reaction conditions. Platinum nanoparticles are suspended in the colloidal solution of brownish-red or black color. Nanoparticles come in wide variety of shapes including spheres, rods, cubes, and tetrahedra. Platinum nanoparticles are the subject of substantial research, with potential applications in a wide variety of areas. These include catalysis, medicine, and the synthesis of novel materials with unique properties.
Synthesis Platinum nanoparticles are typically synthesized either by the reduction of platinum ion precursors in solution with a stabilizing or capping agent to form colloidal nanoparticles, or by the impregnation and reduction of platinum ion precursors in a micro-porous support such as alumina. Some common examples of platinum precursors include potassium hexachloroplatinate (K2PtCl6) or platinous chloride (PtCl2) Different combinations of precursors, such as ruthenium chloride (RuCl3) and chloroplatinic acid (H2PtCl6), have been used to synthesize mixed-metal nanoparticles Some common examples of reducing agents include hydrogen gas (H2), sodium borohydride (NaBH4) and ethylene glycol (C2H6O2), although other alcohols and plant-derived compounds have also been used. As the platinum metal precursor is reduced to neutral platinum metal (Pt0), the reaction mixture becomes supersaturated with platinum metal and the Pt0 begins to precipitate in the form of nanoscale particles. A capping agent or stabilizing agent such as sodium polyacrylic acid or sodium citrate is often used to stabilize the nanoparticle surfaces, and prevents the aggregation and coalescence of the nanoparticles. The size of nanoparticles synthesized colloidally may be controlled by changing the platinum precursor, the ratio of capping agent to precursor, and/or the reaction temperature. The size of the nanoparticles can also be controlled with small deviation by using a stepwise seed-mediated growth procedure as outlined by Bigall et al. (2008). The size of nanoparticles synthesized onto a substrate such as alumina depends on various parameters such as the pore size of the support. Platinum nanoparticles can also be synthesized by decomposing Pt2(dba)3 (dba = dibenzylideneacetone) under a CO or H2 atmosphere, in the presence of a capping agent. The size and shape distributions of the resulting nanoparticles depend on the solvent, the reaction atmosphere, the types of capping agents and their relative concentrations, the specific platinum ion precursor, as well at the temperature of the system and reaction time.
Shape and size control
Ramirez et al. reported the influence of ligand and solvent effects on the size and shape of platinum nanoparticles. Platinum nanoparticle seeds were prepared by the decomposition of Pt2(dba)3 in tetrahydrofuran (THF) under carbon monoxide (CO). These conditions produced Pt nanoparticles with weakly bound THF and CO ligands and an approximate diameter on 1.2 nm. Hexadecylamine (HDA) was added to the purified reaction mixture and allowed to displace the THF and CO ligands over the course of approximately seven days, producing monodispersed spherical crystalline Pt nanoparticles with an average diameter of 2.1 nm. After the seven-day period, an elongation of the Pt nanoparticles occurred. When the same procedure was followed using a stronger capping agent such as triphenyl phosphine or octanethiol, the nanoparticles remained spherical, suggesting that the HDA ligand affects particle shape. Oleylamine, oleic acid and platinum(II) acetylacetonate (Pt(acac)2) are also used in the synthesis of size/shape controlled platinum nanoparticles. Research showed that alkylamine can coordinate with Pt2+ ion and form tetrakis(amine)platinate precursor and replace the original acac− ligand in Pt(acac)2, and oleic acid can further exchange with acac− and tune the formation kinetics of platinum nanoparticles. When Pt2(dba)3 was decomposed in THF under hydrogen gas in the presence HDA, the reaction took much longer, and formed nanowires with diameters between 1.5 and 2 nm. Decomposition of Pt2(dba)3 under hydrogen gas in toluene yielded the formation of nanowires with 2–3 nm diameter independent of HDA concentration. The length of these nanowires was found to be inversely proportional to the concentration of HDA present in solution. When these nanowire syntheses were repeated using reduced concentrations of Pt2(dba)3, there was little effect on the size, length or distribution of the nanowires formed. Platinum nanoparticles of controlled shape and size have also been accessed through varying the ratio of polymer capping agent concentration to precursor concentration. Reductive colloidal syntheses as such have yielded tetrahedral, cubic, irregular-prismatic, icosahedral, and cubo-octahedral nanoparticles, whose dispersity is also dependent on the concentration ratio of capping agent to precursor, and which may be applicable to catalysis. The precise mechanism of shape-controlled colloidal synthesis is not yet known; however, it is known that the relative growth rate of crystal facets within the growing nanostructure determines its final shape. Polyol syntheses of platinum nanoparticles, in which chloroplatinic acid is reduced to PtCl42− and Pt0 by ethylene glycol, have also been a means to shape-controlled fabrication. Addition of varying amounts of sodium nitrate to these reactions was shown to yield tetrahedra and octahedra at high concentration ratios of sodium nitrate to chloroplatinic acid. Spectroscopic studies suggest that nitrate is reduced to nitrite by PtCl42− early in this reaction, and that the nitrite may then coordinate both Pt(II) and Pt(IV), greatly slowing the polyol reduction and altering the growth rates of distinct crystal facets within the nanoparticles, ultimately yielding morphological differentiation.
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![Platinum nanoparticle: Electron micrographs of Ostwald ripening in Pd nanoparticles dissolved in formaldehyde at 6 (a), 24 (b), 48 (c) and 72 hours (d). The small Pd particles are being consumed as the larger ones grow bigger.[13]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6c/TEM_of_Ostwald_ripening_in_Pd_nanoparticles.jpg/500px-TEM_of_Ostwald_ripening_in_Pd_nanoparticles.jpg?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=parser&utm_content=thumbnail)
