Year

2018

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials

Abstract

Electrocatalysts are in the spotlight due to their various applications, including energy storage and sensors. Among them, electrocatalysts used as sensor electrodes are very important because they are relevant to human health. Many studies have been made to increase the efficiency of the electrocatalysts via the development of new catalytic materials. Among the various materials, noble metal-based materials are considered important because of their good catalytic properties, although they have the disadvantage that they are expensive compared to common materials. Therefore, various methods, such as changing their morphology, increasing their surface area, and size control, have been employed to overcome this drawback. This thesis introduces the synthesis of noble-metal-based electrode materials and their applications.

Dendritic platinum nanoparticles (DPNs) have been synthesized using an amphiphilic non-ionic surfactant (Brij 58® ) via a sonochemical method. The particle size of the DPNs can be tuned by changing the reduction temperature, which resulted in a uniform DPN with a size of 23 nm or 60 nm. The facets of DPNs were observed by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM). In addition, the cytotoxicity of DPNs was investigated for biosensor applications using human embryonic kidney cells (HEK-293).

FoR codes (2008)

1007 NANOTECHNOLOGY, 100708 Nanomaterials, 0302 INORGANIC CHEMISTRY, 0303 MACROMOLECULAR AND MATERIALS CHEMISTRY

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Unless otherwise indicated, the views expressed in this thesis are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the University of Wollongong.