Faceted Branched Nickel Nanoparticles with Tunable Branch Length for High‐Activity Electrocatalytic Oxidation of Biomass
Agus R. Poerwoprajitno, Lucy Gloag, John Watt, Steffen Cychy, Soshan Cheong, Priyank V. Kumar, Tânia M. Benedetti, Chen Deng, Kuang‐Hsu Wu, Christopher E. Marjo, Dale L. Huber, Martin Muhler, J. Justin Gooding, Wolfgang Schuhmann, Dawei Wang, Richard D. Tilley
Abstract
Controlling the formation of nanosized branched nanoparticles with high uniformity is one of the major challenges in synthesizing nanocatalysts with improved activity and stability. Using a cubic-core hexagonal-branch mechanism to form highly monodisperse branched nanoparticles, we vary the length of the nickel branches. Lengthening the nickel branches, with their high coverage of active facets, is shown to improve activity for electrocatalytic oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), as an example for biomass conversion.