Ultra-small bimetallic nanoparticles-stabilized conductive metal-organic frameworks for superior chemiresistors

Abstract

Conductive metal-organic frameworks (cMOFs) have emerged as a new class of chemiresistor materials with high porosity, high surface area, and high electrical conductivity at room temperature. Nevertheless, their insufficient surface reactivity is an unmet challenge to achieve highly sensitive chemiresistors. In this thesis, we enhanced the activity of cMOF using encapsulation of bimetallic NP in well-defined pores of cMOF. Two metal precursors (K2PtCl4 and RuCl3) are guided into pores of MOFs via dipolar interaction and undergo the site-specific nucleation, resulting in well-dispersed and ultra-small (c.a. 1.54 nm) bimetallic PtRu NPs. The bimetallic-NPs encapsulated MOF shows great enhancement in chemiresistive response toward NO2, which is attributed to the synergistic effect between Pt and Ru in encapsulated NPs. This approach suggests the facile synthetic method to combine conductive porous materials and highly active multi-metallic NPs.