Patterning Cu nanostructures tailored for CO

Due to the limited availability of noble metal catalysts, such as platinum, palladium, or gold, their substitution by more abundant elements is highly advisable. Considerably challenging is the controlled and reproducible synthesis of stable non-noble metallic nanostructures with accessible active sites. Here, we report a method of preparation of bare (ligand-free) Cu nanostructures from polycrystalline metal in a controlled manner. This procedure relies on heterogeneous localized electrorefining of polycrystalline Cu on indium tin oxide (ITO) and glassy carbon as model supports using scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM). The morphology of nanostructures and thus their catalytic properties are tunable by adjusting the electrorefining parameters