Growth of Transition Metal Nanoclusters to Get Enhanced Catalytic Abilities

Electro deposition is one of the economical and straight forward method to get metal in desired structure and size. In many cases, electro deposition is used in different fashions to have nanostructure. Here, electro deposition was carried out in citrate bath as well as reverse microemulsion. Citrate bath was prepared for different transition metals and these metals were deposited on copper substrate. Metal nanoparticles got deposited by reverse microemulsion method using Triton X-100 as a surfactant. Stable and transparent microemulsion was synthesized at room temperature. After the formation of metal ions in the emulsion, they were reduced at the copper electrode and deposition took place. Reverse micelles provided suitable environment to the metal ions and acted as a template. The electrochemical activity of the electrodes prepared by both methods was compared by carrying out oxidation of alkaline solution and alcohols. It was observed that electrodes modified using reverse micro emulsion as template showed considerable enhanced catalytic abilities than electrodes prepared in citrate bath. Study of surface morphology through scanning electron microscopy indicates the formation of nanoclusters of deposited metals in case of reverse microemulsion. These nanoclusters, nanocatalysts, are mainly responsible for enhanced catalytic abilities.