We report Pt–Pd nanoparticles synthesized by means of a polyol process with glycerol as a reducing agent. The Pt–Pd nanoparticles exhibit dominantly exposed {111} facets in octahedral shape with complete alloy formation between Pt and Pd. Furthermore, the octahedral Pt–Pd alloy catalysts show improved catalytic activity and stability in methanol electrooxidation.

Size-controlled Pt nanocatalysts embedded in TiO₂ were successfully synthesized by simultaneous dual-gun sputtering and were found to exhibit unique electronic properties depending on their size, which affected the potential of zero total charge, CO-bulk oxidation, and methanol oxidation reaction.

An octahedron-shaped Cu₂O nanostructured electrode having {111} facets with high surface energy favourable for lithium ion transport revealed an enhanced conversion reaction mechanism with high reversible capacity and high rate cycling performance.

Structure-controlled Pt-based catalysts have been known to exhibit improved electrocatalytic activities due to particularly modulated surface structures favorable for hydrogen oxidation or oxygen reduction reactions. We prepare octahedral Pt-Pd alloy nanoparticles such as Pt₃Pd₁, Pt₁Pd₁, Pt₁Pd₃ by reducing metal ions with glycerol as a reducing agent in an aqueous solution. The octahedral Pt-Pd nanoparticles are well-defined alloy nanostructures with dominant {111} facets. Among them, the octahedral Pt₃Pd₁ shows excellent electrochemical properties i.e., much enhanced electrocatalytic activity and stability for oxygen reduction reactions in comparison with conventional Pt-based catalysts.