High-throughput metal nanoparticle catalysis by pulsed laser ablation

A high-throughput pulsed laser ablation (HT-PLA) system was developed to rapidly prepare uniformly sized single- and multi-metallic nanoparticles with different diameters for catalytic applications. Catalytic materials containing Rh, bimetallic Rh/Pt and trimetallic Rh/Pt/Au nanoparticles were synthesized from targets prepared by blending, tableting and sintering powders of pure metals, and by directly collecting the nanoparticles created on support materials. Nanoparticles exhibited crystallinity and uniformity in size and composition as determined by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, respectively. The supported nanoparticles created by HT-PLA were also screened for their catalytic activities and selectivities for the partial oxidation of propylene. In less than a day, over 40 different catalytic materials of nanoparticles supported on γ-Al2O3, CeO2, TiO2, SiO2 and Y-ZrO2 were prepared and evaluated. This highly streamlined approach resulted in the discovery of TiO2 supported 0.004% Rh nanoparticles as a promising new lead for the synthesis of partial oxidation products of propylene with one-pass yields of about 13% at 275 °C.