One-pot green synthesis of bimetallic hollow palladium-platinum nanotubes for enhanced catalytic reduction of p-nitrophenol.

Bimetallic alloy nanostructures have garnered much attention due to their unique performances in catalytic processes. However, decline in catalytic activity over the life span has been a protracted limitation, ascribed largely to the aggregation or dissociation of particles and still remains a challenge for manufacturing bimetallic nanostructures of sufficient stability. Herein, a surfactant- and solvent-free greener strategy is presented for the fabrication of bimetallic palladium-platinum (PdPt) nanotubes (NTs), deploying lipid tubules as template and ascorbic acid as a reducing agent; the ensuing NTs comprise crystalline tubal nanostructures of ∼12 μm length, ∼500 nm cross-sectional diameter, and ∼57 nm tube wall thickness. When used for the catalytic reduction of p-nitrophenol (PNP), the PdPt NTs delivered improved kinetic apparent rate constants (k) compared to Pt NTs (0.5 minvs. 0.2 min). Moreover, the NTs demonstrated high stability when used over multiple catalytic cycles thus opening up new potential routes for the fabrication of alloy NTs using lipid tubules as templates.