A Metastable p-Type Semiconductor as a Defect-Tolerant Photoelectrode.

A p-type CuTaO semiconductor was synthesized using a CuCl flux-based approach and investigated for its crystalline structure and photoelectrochemical properties. The semiconductor was found to be metastable, i.e.

Nanocatalysis on tailored shape supports: Au and Pd nanoparticles supported on MgO nanocubes and ZnO nanobelts.

Active gold and palladium nanoparticles supported on MgO nanocubes and ZnO nanobelts and transition-metal-containing MgO nanobelts were synthesized by combining evaporation and deposition-precipitation techniques. The high activity and stability of the Au/CeO2 and Pd/CeO2 nanoparticle catalysts deposited on the MgO cubes are remarkable and imply that a variety of efficient catalysts can be designed and tested using this approach. The significant increase in the concentration of corner and edge sites in MgO nanocubes make them well-defined supports to study the detailed mechanism of the catalytic activity enhancement.

Microwave synthesis of supported Au and Pd nanoparticle catalysts for CO oxidation.

We report the microwave synthesis and characterization of Au and Pd nanoparticle catalysts supported on CeO2, CuO, and ZnO nanoparticles for CO oxidation. The results indicate that supported Au/CeO2 catalysts exhibit excellent activity for low-temperature CO oxidation. The Pd/CeO2 catalyst shows a uniform dispersion of Pd nanoparticles with a narrow size distribution within the ceria support.