Shape-dependent catalytic activity of silver nanoparticles for the oxidation of styrene.

Metal nanoparticles with different shapes have different crystallographic faces. It is therefore of interest to study the effect of the shape of metal nanoparticles on their catalytic activity in various organic and inorganic reactions. Truncated triangular silver nanoplates with well-defined planes were synthesized by a simple solvothermal approach. The activity of these truncated triangular silver nanoparticles was compared with that of cubic and near-spherical silver nanoparticles in the oxidation of styrene in colloidal solution. It was found that the crystal faces of silver nanoparticles play an essential role in determining the catalytic oxidation properties. The silver nanocubes had the {100} crystal faces as the basal plane, whereas truncated triangular nanoplates and near-spherical nanoparticles predominantly exposed the most-stable {111} crystal faces. As a result, the rate of the reaction over the nanocubes was more than 14 times higher than that on nanoplates and four times higher than that on near-spherical nanoparticles.