Abstract
One of the major obstacles to the synthesis of nanoparticles and nanocatalyst is the stability of particles. In the present study, polymer stabilized ruthenium nanoparticles were synthesized by solvothermal method using solutions of ruthenium chloride in ethylene glycol in presence of poly(N โvinylโ2โpyrrolidone) (PVP) as a stabilizing agent. Stability of nanoparticles was studied by varying different parameters e.g. PVP/RuCl~3~ molar raio, RuCl~3~ concentration, reaction temperature and time and expressed in terms of particle size and size distribution. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) analysis revealed the presence of metallic clusters with a uniform size of about 20โ65 nm. Dispersion destabilisation of colloidal nanoparticles was detected by Turbiscan. Polymer stabilized ruthenium nanoparticles were dispersed on ฮณโalumina to prepare uniformly disperse Ru/ฮณโAl~2~O~3~ catalyst by mechanical strirring and sonication. Inductively coupled plasmaโoptical emission spectroscopy (ICPโOES), XโRay powder diffraction (XRD), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) were used to characterize the supported catalyst. (ยฉ 2011 WILEYโVCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)