Dr Anthony O'Mullane will be visiting the Centre and the Department of Chemistry from 6th - 8th July and will be giving a lecture on "Electrochemical fabrication of metallic and bimetallic nanostructured materials with tuneable properties".

Abstract:

A significant amount of research has focused on the electrocatalytic properties of metallic and bimetallic nanostructures. Electrochemical methods offer a facile route to fabricate well defined nanostructured materials in a controlled manner.  In this presentation a variety of Au, Pt, Ag and Cu nanostructures are demonstrated which have been created using inorganic growth directing agents and/or utilising a hydrogen bubble templating method. Generally, metallic nanomaterials formed through electrochemical methods are quite active which is highly dependent on the electrodeposition method. For electrocatalytic oxidation reactions it has been postulated that incipient oxide formation on the surface through oxidation of active sites can mediate the reaction of interest. Therefore, the active site behaviour of these nanostructured materials is investigated using cyclic voltammetry and large amplitude Fourier transformed ac voltammetry which is shown to have significant impact on electrocatalytic performance. Interestingly, it is demonstrated that the presence of highly active sites on gold and platinum drives the spontaneous electroless deposition of silver and palladium nanoparticles from their precursor salts on to the metal nanostructures to create highly effective bimetallic electrocatalysts which substantially minimise poisoning effects.

For more information please see Dr O'Mullane's web page