The many angles and edges of the 24-sided platinum nanoparticles shown in this micrograph increase the catalytic activity on their surfaces.
Credit: Xiang Zhang, Georgia Tech
New publications, experiments and breakthroughs in nanotechnology--and what they mean.
Better Catalysts
Multifaceted platinum nanoparticles may help explain catalysis and could lead to cheaper fuel cells and alternative fuels
Source: "Synthesis of Tetrahexahedral Platinum Nanocrystals with High-Index Facets and High Electro-Oxidation Activity"
Na Tian et al.
Science 316: 732-735
Results: Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta and at Xiamen University in China have made platinum nanoparticles with a new 24-sided shape. The surfaces of the nanoparticles have four times as much catalytic activity as the surfaces of commercial catalysts. This is because of the greater number of unstable atoms at the particles' edges and the odd angles of the shape's many facets.
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This document is part of the “How-To Guide for Most Common Measurements” centralized resource portal. This tutorial provides a detailed guide for measurement and device considerations to take temperature measurements using thermocouples. Get an introduction to thermocouples, which are inexpensive sensing devices widely used with PC-based data acquisition systems. Also review some specific thermocouple examples and learn how thermocouples work and ways to integrate them into a data acquisition measurement system.
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