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Iridium nanoparticles are important catalysts for several chemical and energy conversion reactions. Studies of iridium nanoparticles have also been a key for the development of kinetic models of nanomaterial formation. However, compared to other metals such as gold or platinum, knowledge on the nature of prenucleation species and structural insights into the resultant nanoparticles are missing, especially for nanoparticles obtained from IrxCly precursors investigated here. We use in situ X-ray total scattering (TS) experiments with pair distribution function (PDF) analysis to study a simple, surfactant-free synthesis of colloidal iridium nanoparticles. The reaction is performed in methanol at 50 °C with only a base and an iridium salt as precursor. From different precursor salts─IrCl3, IrCl4, H2IrCl6, or Na2IrCl6─colloidal nanoparticles as small as Ir∼55 are obtained as the final product. The nanoparticles do not show the bulk iridium face-centered cubic (fcc) structure but show decahedral and icosahedral structures. The formation route is highly dependent on the precursor salt used. Using IrCl3 or IrCl4, metallic iridium nanoparticles form rapidly from IrxClyn- complexes, whereas using H2IrCl6 or Na2IrCl6, the iridium nanoparticle formation follows a sudden growth after an induction period and the brief appearance of a crystalline phase. With H2IrCl6, the formation of different Irn (n = 55, 55, 85, and 116) nanoparticles depends on the nature of the cation in the base (LiOH, NaOH, KOH, or CsOH, respectively) and larger particles are obtained with larger cations. As the particles grow, the nanoparticle structure changes from partly icosahedral to decahedral. The results show that the synthesis of iridium nanoparticles from IrxCly is a valuable iridium nanoparticle model system, which can provide new compositional and structural insights into iridium nanoparticle formation and growth.

In the present study, different concepts for the development of bifunctional oxygen reduction reaction/oxygen evolution reaction (ORR/OER) electrocatalysts are explored and compared. Bifunctional O...

This work concerns a new technique to post-modify the catalytic material intended for use in H2O2 direct synthesis. The catalyst chosen was a commercially available 1 wt.% Pd/C. The catalyst was modified with the so-called Catalyst Wet Pretreatment Method (CWPM) that is used to post-modify prepared catalysts with aqueous solutions of NaBr, in different concentrations. The performance of pristine and the pretreated materials were then compared in the H2O2 direct synthesis and characterized before and after the catalytic tests in order to understand the role of the different concentrations of bromide in the CWPM procedure. The surface features of the different catalysts were analyzed with CO chemisorption (metal dispersion and mean particle size), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM, for Pd morphology and Pd particle size distributions), Inductive Coupled Plasma (ICP, for Pd content) and Ion Chromatography (IC, for bromide content). Various features of the materials prepared with the CWPM were correlated with the catalytic performance. It was found that the bromide has an active role in the reconstruction of metal phase and it does not only act as a poison for the most active catalytic sites as often reported in literature. By using this new protocol, the production H2O2 was almost doubled compared to the non-modified material when no direct promoters were added to the reaction environment.