Tunable morphological properties of silver enriched platinum allied nanoparticles and their catalysed reduction of p-nitrophenol

A robust polymer based and polyol mediated procedure to synthesize nanobimetallic particles has been modified to produce core-shell and alloy Ag/Pt nanoparticles with tunable properties. Novel three-dimensional (3D) quasi nanocubes entangled in nanowebs were produced by rapid solution phase transformation with hot addition of absolute ethanol. The optical characterization showed extinction of plasmon resonance band occurring with incremental feeding ratio of Pt source in all cases. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) and high resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) images revealed that the shape, size and size distribution of as-prepared silver platinum nanoparticles depended on the stabilizer or capping agent, mole ratio of metal ion sources, temperature and time of reaction. Meanwhile, catalytic activity was highest in the reduction of p-nitrophenol in the presence of polyvinylpyrrolidone/diethylene glycol stabilized Ag/Pt nanoparticles.