Nanofluidic Trapping of Faceted Colloidal Nanocrystals for Parallel Single-Particle Catalysis

• Catalyst activity can depend distinctly on nano -particle size and shape. Therefore, understanding the structure sensitivity of catalytic reactions is of fundamental and technical importance. Experiments with single-particle resolution, where ensemble-averaging is eliminated, are required to study it. Here, we implement the selective trapping of individual spherical, cubic, and octahedral colloidal Au nanocrystals in 100 parallel nanofluidic channels to determine their activity for fluorescein reduction by sodium borohydride using fluorescence microscopy. As the main result, we identify distinct structure sensitivity of the rate-limiting borohydride oxidation step originating from different edge site abundance on the three particle types, as confirmed by first -principles calculations. This advertises nanofluidic reactors for the study of structure-function correlations in catalysis and identifies nanoparticle shape as a key factor in borohydride-mediated catalytic reactions.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Kemi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Chemical Sciences (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Kemi -- Annan kemi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Chemical Sciences -- Other Chemistry Topics (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Industriell bioteknik -- Biokatalys och enzymteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Industrial Biotechnology -- Biocatalysis and Enzyme Technology (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Kemi -- Organisk kemi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Chemical Sciences -- Organic Chemistry (hsv//eng)

Keyword

nanoparticle trapping

single nanoparticle catalysis

nanofluidics

fluorescence microscopy

colloidal Au nanocrystals

first-principles

calculations

elastic band method

heterogeneous catalysis

polysilsesquioxane

dynamics

Chemistry

Science & Technology - Other Topics

Materials Science

first-principles calculations

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)