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Abstract

Tailoring the chemical reactivity of nanomaterials at the atomic level is one of the most important challenges in catalysis research. In order to achieve this elusive goal, fundamental understanding of the geometric and electronic structure of these complex systems at the atomic level must be obtained. This article reports the influence of the nanoparticle shape on the reactivity of Pt nanocatalysts supported on γ-Al₂O₃. Nanoparticles with analogous average size distributions (∼0.8−1 nm), but with different shapes, synthesized by inverse micelle encapsulation, were found to display distinct reactivities for the oxidation of 2-propanol. A correlation between the number of undercoordinated atoms at the nanoparticle surface and the onset temperature for 2-propanol oxidation was observed, demonstrating that catalytic properties can be controlled through shape-selective synthesis.