Synthesis
Platinum nanoparticles are made by reduction of hexachloroplatinate. A solution is rapidly stirred while a reducing agent such as hydrogen gas is added, causing platinum ions to be reduced to neutral platinum atoms. As more and more of these platinum atoms form, the solution quickly becomes supersaturated and platinum starts to precipitate in the form of sub-nanometre particles. As the reaction proceeds, platinum atoms are added to these nuclei, which grow in size. If the solution is stirred vigorously enough, the particles will be fairly uniform in size and shape. To prevent the particles from aggregating, some sort of stabilizing agent or stabilizer that sticks to the nanoparticle surface is usually added, such as sodium polyacrylate. They can be functionalized with various organic ligands to create organic-inorganic hybrid materials with advanced functionality.
Read more about this topic: Platinum Nanoparticles
Famous quotes containing the word synthesis:
“If in the opinion of the Tsars authors were to be the servants of the state, in the opinion of the radical critics writers were to be the servants of the masses. The two lines of thought were bound to meet and join forces when at last, in our times, a new kind of regime the synthesis of a Hegelian triad, combined the idea of the masses with the idea of the state.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“The spider-mind acquires a faculty of memory, and, with it, a singular skill of analysis and synthesis, taking apart and putting together in different relations the meshes of its trap. Man had in the beginning no power of analysis or synthesis approaching that of the spider, or even of the honey-bee; but he had acute sensibility to the higher forces.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)
“In order to begin an analysis, there must already be a synthesis present in the mind.”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)