Nanomaterials are nowadays at the forefront of materials science research. The design and realization of hierarchical nanoarchitectures, in which selected components are arranged to leverage their expected mechanistic functions are obtaining a wide range of applications, from the aerospace industry to bio-medicine, and as benchmarks for many catalytic reactions.

Carbon-based nanomaterials have been the main actors of nanotechnology since their very first discovery, and their unique morphological/electronic properties are particularly suited to be used in electrocatalytic applications. CNTs and graphene are indeed ideal supports in catalysis as they have an optimal electronic conductivity and provide percolation routes for charge transfer reactions to occur. The integration of nanocarbons into hierarchical materials is an effective strategy to further boost the potentiality of nanostructured catalysts. The generation of multiple interfaces in such hierarchical assemblies is responsible for their exceptional activity, whose origin is however only rarely understood.

We will show that, once embedded within nanoarchitectures made of multi-wall carbon nanotubes or graphene and metal oxide shells, the catalytic properties of nanoclusters (1,2,5) and metal nanoparticles (3,4) can be dramatically enhanced according to mechanisms which likely involve the concerted and synergic participation of all component building blocks in the electrocatalytic steps.

References

(1) F.M. Toma et al., Nature Chemistry 2010, 2, 826

(2) M. Quintana et al. ACS Nano 2013, 7, 811–817

(3) R. Mazzaro et al. ChemistryOpen 2015, 4, 268 – 273

(4) G. Valenti et al. Nature Communications 2016, 7 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms13549

(5) A.B. Marco et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2017, 56, 6946-6951