New Discovery Could Help Fine-Tune Nanoparticle Alloys for Specific Uses
Written by AZoNanoApr 23 2021
There's gold in them thar nanoparticles, and there used to be a lot of silver, too. But much of the silver has leached away, and researchers want to know how.
Gold-silver alloys are useful catalysts that degrade environmental pollutants, facilitate the production of plastics and chemicals and kill bacteria on surfaces, among other applications. In nanoparticle form, these alloys could be useful as optical sensors or to catalyze hydrogen evolution reactions.
But there's an issue: Silver doesn't always stay put.
A new study by scientists at Rice University and the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, reveals a two-step mechanism behind silver's dissipation, a discovery that could help industry fine-tune nanoparticle alloys for specific uses.