Fabrication and Characterization of Nano-Confined Pd Catalysts for CO Oxidation

During this thesis nanoporous alumina has been used as a template for the synthesis of nano-confined palladium structures. The nanoporous templates have been synthesized by anodization of aluminum and characterized using atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), resulting in good statistics of the pore diameter and interpore distance of these nanoporous structures. Palladium nanowires of different height and diameter has successfully been fabricated within the nanoporous alumina using electrodeposition from a neutral electrolyte. Palladium nanoparticles have been deposited onto nanoporous membranes using an electroless chemical deposition technique. The fabricated palladium nanostructures have been characterized using SEM. The catalytic activity of these palladium nanostructures has been characterized by mass spectrometry and planar laser induced flourescence. A difference in the catalytic conversion and in the onset temperature of the catalytic reactions has been observed as a function of pore size. The experiments should be repeated in a more controlled manner before any conclusion can be drawn about the effect of the nano-confinement on the catalytic activity. But this work has proved that palladium nanowires can be grown inside nanoporous alumina templates of different pore size and different depth and these palladium nanostructures show catalytic activity for CO oxidation. (Less)