Regular Article

Growth of out-of-equilibrium PtPd nanoalloys

Molecular Cryo-Electron Microscopy Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, 1919-1 Tancha, Onna-son, Kunigami-gun, Okinawa 904-0495, Japan

^* e-mail: chloe.minnai@oist.jp

Received: 20 December 2021
Received in final form: 27 January 2022
Accepted: 11 February 2022
Published online: 1 June 2022

Abstract

Bimetallic nanoparticles (BNPs) are receiving increasing attention due to their versatility in applications. We can distinguish between equilibrium growth, when the system is close to thermodynamic equilibrium at each stage of the growth, and out-of-equilibrium growth if the system explores high-energy structures in which it can eventually be kinetically trapped. Coalescence is a promising strategy to grow strongly out-of-equilibrium structures. Gas phase synthesis can be used to produce a wide variety of highly pure BNPs with tailored features. In this study, we show an experimental method to grow particle with out-of-equilibrium structures. An experimental overview on the approaches developed to control the degree of coalescence of the PtPd BNPs is presented.