Themed collection Nanoalloys: recent developments and future perspectives

Carbon-doped anionic copper clusters exhibit a size- and dopant-loading dependent activity towards CO₂, resulting in activation and dissociation.

The field of nanoalloys has evolved a lot since the first Faraday Discussions on this topic. These concluding remarks highlight these changes and try to extrapolate what future research directions might be.

Cold MSn₁₂ nanoalloy clusters (M = Al, Ga, In) have been studied in combined electric and magnetic beam deflection experiments. By a quantum chemical approach the correlation between geometric structure and magnetic properties has been elucidated.

We present a computational study of the energetics and mechanisms of oxidation of Pt–Mn systems.

XAS monitoring of the reduction of partially oxidized NiFe nanoparticles evidenced an internal redox phenomenon induced by a residual Ni core, before complete reduction occurred with a change in the chemical structure from core–shell to alloy.

We look at nanoparticles with three or more metals and examine how they are stabilized by kinetic energy and the entropy of the system. The importance of twin boundaries in nanoalloys is discussed.

We proposed a general strategy for alloying silver and platinum elements into single-phase solid-solution nanoparticles with arbitrarily desired composition by bonding pure Pt targets with pure Ag strips in an improved pulsed laser deposition.

This study provides novel insight into the surface chemistry of laser-ablated organic-ligand-free gold–silver alloy nanoparticles via extensive electrochemical characterization.

High fidelity selectivity tuning of the oxidative dehydrogenation of cyclohexene was achieved through the control of the atomic composition of CuPd clusters and their interactions with the support.

Chemical and physical synthesis methods were developed to fabricate high entropy nanoalloys containing up to five metals. TEM was exploited to reveal size and compositional effects on the nanophase diagram of these complex nanostructures.

The stability of highly active trimetallic PtPdCu nanoalloys for electrochemical oxygenation reduction is a result of closed-loop oscillation processes among dissolution, deposition, and Cu diffusions between the inner layers and the surface layer.

Cobalt doping of Au₂₅ nanoclusters led to an enhancement in the catalytic behaviour. The evolution of the doped Au clusters to nanoalloys with controlled surface sites was revealed by combined XAFS, DRIFTS and XPS studies.

The structure and dynamics of Au–Cu NPs exposed to hydrogen atmospheric pressure are studied, and the role of Cu in maintaining their fcc symmetry explored.

Nanoparticles with diameters in the range of a few nanometers, consisting of gold and vanadium oxide, are synthesized by sequential doping of cold helium droplets in a molecular beam apparatus and deposited on solid carbon substrates.

Photocatalytic evaluation of Janus and core–shell alloy nanostructures prepared by chemical reduction shows that the gold–platinum synergy for plasmon-induced methane artificial photosynthesis from CO₂ and water is driven by the Au–Pt interface.

We present an open-source library, Sapphire, to classify the characteristics of nanoalloys through several structural analysis techniques. We focus on using geometrical descriptors to make predictions on a given nanoparticle's catalytic activity.

The addition of moderate amounts of Ag and Cu to Pd significantly enhances the isoamylene yield in isoprene hydrogenation. The surface Pd composition ratio between the metallic and oxidized states shows significant effects on the monoolefines yield.

The atomic and chemical structure and the optical response of A_xB_1−x bimetallic nanoparticles (BNPs) combining gold or silver (A) with aluminium or indium (B) were investigated at various stoichiometries.

We prepare a number of Pd based catalysts for the hydrogenation of CO₂ to methanol, to explore Pd alloys under reaction conditions. HRTEM and EDX maps show element distribution for the PdZn/Ga₂O₃ catalyst.

Molecular dynamics simulations allow us to identify the transformation pathways of AgAu, PtPd and AuCu nanoalloys from core–shell to intermixed configurations.

Au₂₄Pt(SR)₁₈ clusters have low-energy excited states with forbidden transitions and higher-energy excited states that undergo nonradiative transitions to lower-energy states.

Nanoindentation of spherical NiCo nanoalloys with core–shell & random mixing patterns was studied. We compared against monometallic nanoparticles to investigate how the mechanical response may be influenced by the elemental distribution & the proportion of each element.

At the nanoscale, materials exhibit unique properties that differ greatly from those of the bulk state. The melting systematically passes through an intermediate stage with a crystalline core and a pure liquid skin.

Combined experimental and simulation study on AgCo nanoalloys: (1) effect of amorphous carbon substrate: aspherical shape and orientational order; (2) kinetic effect due to atom-by-atom growth: growth of Co on Ag leads to subsurface clusters.

The size-dependent influence of silver and palladium doping on the recurrent fluorescence of laser excited gold clusters, is investigated by a combination of mass spectrometry and quantum chemical calculations.

Laser-generated Au–Fe alloy nanoparticles were exposed to thermal and chemical stimuli, showing that oxidation is crucial in determining phase and physical–chemical properties.