**3. Effect of shape on catalytic properties**

The representative shapes of metal nanoparticles based on dimensionality are shown in **Figure 2**. Spherical, pseudo-spherical, dodecahedral, tetrahedral, octahedral, cubic shape represents 0D nanoparticles. 1D morphology of nanoparticles includes nanotubes, nanorods or nanowires, nanocapsules, etc. [21, 22]. Hexagonal, triangular, quadrangular plates or sheets, belts, rings, etc. fit in to the 2D shape NPs [23]. 3D morphologies of nanoparticles are complex such as nanoflowers, nanostars, polygonal nanoframes, etc. [24, 25]. Compared to simple


**Figure 2.** *Different types of anisotropic nanoparticles.*

#### *Nanocatalysts*

isotropic morphologies of nanoparticles, novel anisotropic morphologies have unique physicochemical properties due to the different numbers of steps, edges, and kink sites present on to the surface of catalyst in nanoscale regime. For example, polyhedral Au NPs with high-indexed facets are found to exhibit excellent optical and catalytic properties, [26, 27] Au rods with different ratios of length and width display different transverse and longitudinal plasmon bands. Preicel et al. have recently published a review on different types of anisotropic gold nanoparticles used in catalysis [28]. Branched Au NPs with multiple tips adopting structures like stars and flowers are increasingly being used for catalysis, surface-enhanced Raman scattering, and sensing [29].

### **4. Composition effect**

The section introduces the effect of composition on catalytic activity from the perspective of alloy and bimetallic nanoparticles only. Commonly, bimetallic nanoparticles can be categorized into alloy (ordered or random), Janus and core-shell (core shell or cluster-in-cluster) structure types. The type of bimetallic or alloy nanostructure formed depends on the synthesis methodology utilized (**Figure 3**).

Catalytic activity of bimetallic nanomaterials is different from of its component metals. Instead of being an average of the catalytic activities of its components, bimetallic nanoparticles may also exhibit synergistic catalytic properties [30, 31]. One such example of composition effect was studied by Lim and co-workers in catalytic activity of Pt-Y alloy for electrocatalytic oxygen reduction [32]. The addition of various amounts of Y changes the electronic structure of Pt and thus modifies the binding energy of the oxygen-containing species. The optimum catalytic performance was achieved at a particular composition of Pt-Y alloy. Thus, the catalytic activity of Pt-Y alloy catalysts follows the trend of Pt70Y30 > Pt78Y22 > Pt64Y36 > Pt86Y14 > Pt91Y9 > Pt. Sun and co-workers also demonstrated such compositiondependent catalytic activity of monodisperse CoPd nanoparticles for formic acid oxidation [33].

The effect of composition also exists in core-shell bimetallic nanoparticles. Jiang et al. established the composition-dependent activity of core-shell Cu@M (M = Co, Fe, Ni) catalyst nanoparticles for hydrolytic dehydrogenation of ammonia borane [34]. In core-shell Cu@M structures, collaboration of Cu with M can change the width of surface d band, which is beneficial for catalytic enhancement. Only an optimum Cu/M ratio in all three cases shows the best catalytic activity.

Extensive use of BNPs have been reported in catalytic oxidation of dyes [35], glucose [29], CO [36], benzyl alcohol [37], and methanol [38] oxygen reduction [39] propane dehydrogenation [36] hydrogenation of nitro-aromatic compounds [40], electro-catalytic oxidation of methanol [28] as well as in desulfurization of thiophene [41].

**Figure 3.**

*Different possibilities of bimetallic nanostructures observed: (a) ordered alloy; (b) random alloy; (c) Janus-like; and (d) core shell.*

**5**

**Author details**

Alkadevi Verma1

Ramgarh, India

University) Varanasi, India

provided the original work is properly cited.

, Madhulata Shukla2

\*Address all correspondence to: isinha.apc@iitbhu.ac.in

1 Department of Chemistry, Rewa Engineering College, Rewa, India

2 Department of Chemistry, G.B. College, Veer Kunwar Singh University,

3 Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu

*Introductory Chapter: Salient Features of Nanocatalysis DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.86209*

High surface area and consequently, enhanced surface active sites have led to extensive use of nanoparticles (NPs) as catalysts. Altering the nature and density of active sites can improve their catalytic activity. Change in nanoparticle size, shape, and composition affects the active site catalytic properties. The three listed aspects may also affect the electronic structure of the nanostructures. Moreover, appropriate functionalization of the nanostructures, not improve their stability against aggregation, but also impact their electronic structures and adsorption properties. Low density support materials also influence the nanostructure electronic state and

Anisotropic shapes offer different densities of surface, edge, and corners in nanoparticles. Atoms in corners and edges possess low coordination and can lead to better interaction with the substrate and other reacting species for catalysis. On the other hand, possible variations in composition offered by bimetallic nanoparticles can not only reduce the cost of nanomaterial but may also show synergistic

**5. Conclusions**

the resultant properties.

properties.

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

and Indrajit Sinha3

\*
