Thesis advisor: Chia-kuang Frank Tsung / Pt-based alloy and core-shell nanoparticles have been intensively studied to regulate its size and shape. It has known that these nanoparticles show enhanced catalytic activity in various important fields such as heterogeneous catalysis, and electrochemical energy storage including fuel cells and metal-air batteries. Here, we report a facile hydrothermal synthesis of sub-10 nm PdPt alloy and sub-20 nm Au@PdPt core-shell structures. By using a mild reducing agent in aqueous solution, metal precursors are co-reduced. Specific gases are introduced during the synthesis to optimize the reaction conditions. The PdPt alloy and Au@PdPt core-shell nanostructures were characterized and confirmed by TEM, HRTEM, EDS, ICP-OES and XRD. The resulting PdPt and Au@PdPt particles are monodispersed single crystalline and octahedral shape enclosed by (111) facets. The electrocatalytic activity for the oxidation of formic acid was tested. It was found that the catalytic activity toward the formic acid oxidation of Au@PdPt core-shell particles were much higher than those of PdPt alloy particles. In addition, Pt-rich compositions were the most active in both PdPt alloy and Au@PdPt core-shell nanoparticles. Further studies on thinner alloy-shell core-shell nanoparticles reveal that there is a volcano-curve relationship between the lattice strain strength related to alloy-shell thickness and the catalytic performance. It is proposed that there are three key parameters that can determine the catalytic activity: the alloy composition, the presence of the gold core, and the thickness of alloy-shell. / Thesis (MS) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Chemistry.