Abstract
Abstract Modern society has an ever-increasing demand for environmentally friendly catalytic processes. Catalysis research is working towards a solution through the development of effective heterogeneous catalysts for environment-related applications. Nanotechnologies have provided effective strategies for the preparation of nanocrystals (NCs) with well-defined sizes, shapes and compositions. Precise control of these NCs provides an important foundation for the studies of structure-performance relationships in catalysis, which is critical to the design of NCs with optimized catalytic performances for practical applications. We focus on recent advances in the development of bottom-up strategies to control NCs structures for some key catalytic applications, including CO oxidation, selective oxidation of alcohols, semihydrogenation of alkynes, and selective hydrogenation of unsaturated aldehydes and nitrobenzene. These key applications have been a popular research focus because of their significance in green chemistry. Herein we also discuss the scientific understandings of the active species and active structures of these systems to gain an insight for rational design of efficient catalytic systems for these catalytic reactions.
Highlights
Heterogeneous catalysts are vital to many industries including chemical manufacturing, energyrelated applications and environmental remediation [1]
We focus on recent advances in the development of bottom-up strategies to control NCs structures for some key catalytic applications, including CO oxidation, selective oxidation of alcohols, semihydrogenation of alkynes, and selective hydrogenation of unsaturated aldehydes and nitrobenzene
The as-synthesized nanoalloy catalysts were applied for the selective transformation of benzyl alcohol to benzaldehyde, and the results showed that bimetallic nanoalloy exhibited higher catalytic activity compared to monometallic NCs
Summary
Heterogeneous catalysts are vital to many industries including chemical manufacturing, energyrelated applications and environmental remediation [1]. Nanocrystals (NCs) finely dispersed on highsurface-area oxides are the most widely used heterogeneous catalysts, with catalytic activity and selectivity of the supported NCs strongly dependent on their size and shape, and surface and local composition [1]. We survey some recent studies reporting on catalytic reactions promoted by NCs. Controlling the size of NCs during their synthesis is crucial when preparing an active catalyst as the surface to volume ratio of the particles increases sharply below 5 nm.
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