Galvanic synthesis of hollow non-precious metal nanoparticles using aluminum nanoparticle template and their catalytic applications

Aluminum nanoparticles, owing to the large negative redox potential, are demonstrated to be an efficient template material to synthesize nanomaterials using the galvanic replacement reaction. The new nanoparticle template has lead to the production of hollow non-precious metal nanoparticles including nickel and cobalt. These hollow nanoparticles are characterized by electron microscopy (SEM and TEM), energy dispersive X - ray spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and BET measurements. When used as catalysts for hydrogen generation from sodium borohydride hydrolysis reaction, these hollow nanoparticles show improved catalytic properties over their solid counterparts due to their large surface area.