Nano Express
Avoiding Loss of Catalytic Activity of Pd Nanoparticles Partially Embedded in Nanoditches in SiC Nanowires
1 State Key Laboratory of Coal Conversion, Institute of Coal Chemistry, 030001, Taiyuan, People’s Republic of China
2 Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1595, USA
3 Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100039, Beijing, People’s Republic of China
Nanoscale Research Letters 2009, 5:332-337 doi:10.1007/s11671-009-9484-6
Published: 15 November 2009Abstract
Nanoditches from selective etching of periodically twinned SiC nanowires were employed to hinder the migration and coalescence of Pd nanoparticles supported on the nanowires, and thus to improve their catalytic stability for total combustion of methane. The results show that the etched Pd/SiC catalyst can keep the methane conversion of almost 100% while the unetched one has an obvious decline in the catalytic activity from 100 to 82% after ten repeated reaction cycles. The excellent catalytic stability originates from the limitation of the nanoditches to the migration and growth of Pd nanoparticles.
