Chemical Reactivity of Pd-Au Bimetallic Nanoclusters Grown via Amorphous Solid Water.pdfVIP

J. Phys. Chem. C 2009, 113, 18341–18346 18341 Chemical Reactivity of Pd-Au Bimetallic Nanoclusters Grown via Amorphous Solid Water as Buffer Layer Elad Gross,? Inna Popov,? and Micha Asscher*,? Institute of Chemistry and The Har Vey M. Krueger Family Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, The Hebrew UniVersity of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel Recei Ved: August 6, 2009; ReVised Manuscript ReceiVed: September 14, 2009 Bimetallic Pd-Au nanoclusters were prepared on SiO /Si 100 via amorphous solid water ASW as buffer 2 layer. Selective growth pathways have led to segregated palladium and gold clusters or alloy bimetallic crystallites. Morphology and chemical composition were determined by AFM, SEM, and HR-TEM coupled to EDX analysis. Correlation between clusters morphology and composition to their chemical reactivity is reported for the ?rst time. Temperature programmed reaction studies revealed that conversion of acetylene to ethylene and trimerization to benzene are signi?cantly enhanced over crystalline alloy Pd-Au clusters when compared to clean Pd. A remarkable selectivity toward ethylene formation over benzene is unique to the alloy bimetallic clusters grown via ASW buffer layer on silica, presumably due to suppression of the trimerization pathway. The intrinsic, modi?ed electronic properties of the bimetallic alloy clusters are believed to drive their enhanced chemical reactivity when compared with the pure Pd clusters. 1. Introduction Here we report on the preparation and initial chemical reactivity of bimetallic clusters, for the ?rst time via the BLAG Supported bimetallic nanoclusters have been at the focus of procedure, manipulating Pd-Au clusters morphology and interest for decades due to their unique catalysis. Their reactivity composition. We were able to demonstrate that the deposition is dictated by chemical composition, since the addition of a and growth pro