Pt₃Co concave nanocubes: Synthesis, formation understanding, and enhanced catalytic activity toward hydrogenation of styrene

We report a facile synthesis route to prepare high-quality Pt₃Co nanocubes with a concave structure, and further demonstrate that these concave Pt₃Co nanocubes are terminated with high-index crystal facets. The success of this preparation is highly dependent on an appropriate nucleation process with a successively anisotropic overgrowth and a preservation of the resultant high-index planes by control binding of oleyl-amine/oleic acid with a fine-tuned composition. Using a hydrogenation of styrene as a model reaction, these Pt₃Co concave nanocubes as a new class of nanocatalysts with more open structure and active atomic sites located on their high-index crystallographic planes exhibit an enhanced catalytic activity in comparison with low-indexed surface terminated Pt₃Co nanocubes in similar size. Anisotropic overgrowth: Pt₃Co concave nanocubes bounded by high-index facets were prepared with a facile wet-chemical method. The formation process for such concave nanostructures was systematically studied, and a plausible mechanism was proposed. These nanocrystals can be used as advanced nanocatalysts, showing high activity and reusability toward hydrogenation of styrene (see figure).