Abstract
There is presently a paucity of mass transfer studies to single
nanocatalyst particles with diameters ranging from 1 nm to 100 nm. We
have experimentally investigated the flux associated with the
electrocatalytic reduction of hexacyanoferrate (III) to hexacyanoferrate
(II) on gold nanospheres. We have found that the flux of
hexacyanoferrate (III) to the surface is insensitive to particle sizes
in the range of 30 nm ≤ dp ≤ 100 nm. For particle sizes of 5 nm ≤ dp ≤
30 nm, we see the flux increase sharply as the particle size decreases.
While qualitatively the same, the measured fluxes are one to three
orders of magnitude smaller than that predicted by a diffusion-limited
model. Factors in addition to diffusion are evaluated and discussed,
including enhanced surface reactivity of nanoparticles, flux
concentration due to sphericity, interactions among particles, presence
of stabilizing layers on the particle, and advection due to Brownian
motion.