Preparation and characterization of palladium colloidal nanoparticles by thermal decomposition of palladium acetate with microwave irradiation

A series of solvent-stabilized palladium colloidal nanoparticles were prepared via thermal decomposition of palladium acetate methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK) solution in the presence of alkali and alcohol with microwave irradiation. The colloidal nanoparticles were characterized with TEM, XPS and XRD. The average diameters of nanoparticles increase from 30 to 40 nm with the increase in concentration of palladium acetate. TEM and XRD observation demonstrated that the palladium colloidal nanoparticles were clusters agglomerated from hundreds of smaller palladium crystallines with size of 3 similar to 4 nm. The influence of the concentrations of alkali and alcohol to the particle size was also discussed.