In situ synthesis of supported metal nanocatalysts through heterogeneous doping.

Supported metal nanoparticles hold great promise for many fields, including catalysis and renewable energy. Here we report a novel methodology for the in situ growth of architecturally tailored, regenerative metal nanocatalysts that is applicable to a wide range of materials. The main idea underlying this strategy is to selectively diffuse catalytically active metals along the grain boundaries of host oxides and then to reduce the diffused metallic species to form nanoclusters.

Conductive Nature of Grain Boundaries in Nanocrystalline Stabilized BiO Thin-Film Electrolyte.

Stabilized BiO has gained a considerable amount of attention as a solid electrolyte material for low-temperature solid oxide fuel cells due to its superior oxygen-ion conductivity at the temperature of relevance (≤500 °C). Despite many research efforts to measure the transport properties of stabilized BiO, the effects of grain boundaries on the electrical conductivity have rarely been reported and their results are even controversial. Here, we attempt quantitatively to assess the grain boundary contribution out of the total ionic conductivity at elevated temperatures (350-500 °C) by fabricating epitaxial and nano-polycrystalline thin films of yttrium-stabilized BiO.