Titanium dioxide nanowires decorated with palladium nanoparticles for catalytic applications

Abstract

This project focuses on the development of hybrid nanostructures comprised of titanium dioxide decorated with palladium nanoparticles for applications in catalysis. Specifically, we are interested in obtaining titanium dioxide nanowires decorated with palladium showing controllable sizes, shape, and well-defined compositions. The first stage of this project will focus on the synthesis and characterization of TiO2 nanowires to be used as support for the deposition of Pd nanoparticles with a diameters between 2 and 10 nm. Then, the Pd-TiO2 nanostructures will be employed as heterogeneous catalysts in oxidation reactions of model molecules such as benzyl alcohol and cyclohexane. In this context, we intend to systematically correlate the catalytic properties (activity and selectivity) with the physico-chemical parameters that define nanomaterials (composition, architecture, and shape). Therefore, it can be expected that the control over the composition, size and shape in these hybrids materials will enable the synthesis of a nanomaterials with improved catalytic properties.