Cerium oxide stabilizes single-atom catalysts

Abstract

By using a molecular “glue” to hold atoms in place, researchers have come up with a method that disperses individual metal atoms across a solid surface and prevents them from coalescing. The advance may lead to practical procedures for making commercial catalysts that maximize use of expensive metals such as platinum. Many industrial-scale chemical processes are driven by solid catalysts consisting of tiny chunks of a noble metal such as platinum or rhodium dispersed on a solid support—often a metal oxide. Known as heterogeneous catalysts because the catalytic material is solid and the reactants are gases and liquids, these catalysts drive petroleum refining, polymerization chemistry, emissions cleanup, and other processes. Smaller is better when it comes to supported metal catalysts. That’s because the catalytic hot spots that convert reactants to products reside on the surfaces of the particles. Reactant molecules cannot reach metal atoms in the interior of a metal