Faceted Branched Nickel Nanoparticles with Tunable Branch Length for High Activity Biomass Oxidation Electrocatalysis.

Controlling the formation of nanosized branched nano-particles with high uniformity is one of the major synthetic challenges to achieve nanocatalysts with improved activity and stability. Using a cubic-core hexagonal-branch mechanism to form highly monodis-perse branched nanoparticles we vary the length of the nickel bran-ches. Lengthening the nickel branches, with their high coverage of active facets, is shown to improve activity for electrocatalytic oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) as an example for biomass conver-sion.