Structural Control and Catalytic Reactivity of Peptide-Templated Pd and Pt Nanomaterials for Olefin Hydrogenation

Diverse classes of metallic nanostructures have been explored recently for a variety of applications, including energy efficient catalytic transformations. The morphology, size, and local chemical environment of the catalytic nanomaterials can have dramatic effects on their reactivity. Herein, we demonstrate a peptide-template-based approach for the synthesis of Pd and Pt nanostructures of varying morphologies under ambient conditions. In this report, we examine the effect of the metal/peptide ratio over an expansive range to demonstrate the stepwise production of materials ranging from nanospheres to nanoparticle networks for the Pd structures. Interestingly, when the metallic composition was changed to Pt, only spherical materials were generated, indicating that the metallic composition of the nanostructures plays a key role in the final morphology. The hydrogenation of allyl alcohol was then employed as a model reaction to examine the catalytic reactivity of these metallic nanomaterials. Under environmentally benign reaction conditions, high turnover frequency values were observed for the metallic Pd and Pt nanocatalysts that was independent of the material morphology. Given their high degree of reactivity and facile synthetic preparation, these materials could prove to be versatile and efficient catalysts for a variety of industrially and environmentally important reactions.