Shumeng's paper has been accepted for publication in Journal of Materials Chemistry A (IF 9.931). Congratulations!

This paper will be included in a "2018 Emerging Investigators" themed issue, which "gathers the very best work from materials chemists in the early stages of their independent career in the field of energy and sustainability", "highlighting 2018’s rising stars of materials chemistry research".

Title: Robust synthesis of ultrathin Au-Ag nanowires as a high-surface-area, synergistic substrate for constructing efficient Pt-based catalysts

Authors: Shumeng Zhang, Lei Zhang, Zhaojun Liu, Moxuan Liu, Qikui Fan, Kai Liu, and Chuanbo Gao*

Link to the Publisher: http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2018/ta/c8ta05663c

Abstract: Ultrathin Au (or Ag) nanowires represent an excellent substrate for atomic layer deposition of Pt to afford highly active and cost-effective catalysts due to the large surface area and possible synergistic effect. An ideal synthesis of such nanowires should avoid using strong capping agents for convenient post-synthesis treatments, and should be easily scaled up and reproduced in a high yield, which remains a challenge. Here, we report a novel strategy to synthesize sub-2 nm Au-Ag alloy nanowires with a high quality in N, N-dimethyl formamide (DMF), which relies on Ag modification of the nanocrystal surface and Ag–halide interactions for regulating the one-dimensional growth of the nanowires, without involving strong capping agents that are usually required in conventional syntheses. Sub-monolayer Pt atoms were successfully deposited on these ultrathin Au-Ag alloy nanowires without forming ensembles albeit a high loading amount (up to 20% in terms of Pt/(Au+Ag)) due to the large surface area. The resulting Au-Ag@Pt core/shell nanowires demonstrate superior activities in the formic acid oxidation reaction (FAOR) due to the synergistic ligand effect and the absence of Pt ensembles. We believe the novel synthesis and the demonstration of the ultrathin Au-Ag alloy nanowires as a general platform for constructing cost-effective noble metal catalysts open new opportunities in designing catalysts for a broad range of reactions.