Selective Nanocatalysis

Abstract

This special issue, guest edited by Nanfeng Zheng, highlights emerging concepts and important advances in selective catalysis with nanostructures. Heterogeneous catalysts play an important role in the chemical industry, in which 90 % of all chemical processes involve the use of catalysis. In many processes, the use of heterogeneous catalysts does not reduce the production of hazardous waste due to the limited catalytic selectivity. However, from an economic standpoint, their use helps to significantly reduce the energy (and time) cost of chemical processes. Ever-increasing environmental pressure has thus been pushing the development of heterogeneous catalysts with excellent selectivity toward the desired products. Such a situation is particularly notable for nanocatalysts with abundant catalytic sites that are associated with complicated surface structural features (e.g., corners, edges, faces). In the field of nanocatalysts, the issue of catalytic selectivity has thus attracted increasing research attention during the past decade. Much effort has been devoted to the development of new preparation methods for creating nanocatalysts with better-defined surface/interface structures and compositions to enhance catalytic selectivity. More importantly, mechanistic studies of how the structural parameters control the selectivity of nanocatalysts have been carried out in the community to identify the determining factors for the design of selective nanocatalysts. This special issue on “Selective Nanocatalysis” aims to highlight the research advances in the development of selective nanocatalysts for different important reactions and the understanding of how the catalytic selectivity is controlled. Jie Zeng et al. summarize the synthesis and catalytic application of Rh-based nanocatalysts for heterogeneous catalysis. Manzhou Zhu et al. report the visible-light induced selective denitrification coupling of benzylamine into N-benzylidenebenzylamine using Au25-xAgx nanoclusters as the catalyst. Yujie Xiong et al. report that the surface modification on Pd nanostructures by Au enhances the selective styrene oxidation by O2. An-Hui Lu et al. develop highly selective Cu catalysts supported on hybrid C@SiO2 hollow submicron spheres for the dehydrogenation of ethanol to acetaldehyde. Jie Fan et al. report an intelligent approach to optimize Na−Mn−W/SiO2 catalysts for the oxidative coupling of methane using ink-jet printing. In addition to oxidation catalysis, several selective hydrogenation reactions are also demonstrated in this special issue. Yong Wang et al. review the selective catalytic hydrogenation of phenol to cyclohexanone. Huan Li, Xian-Ming Zhang, Nanfeng Zheng et al. develop a facile strategy to fabricate carbon-coating Pt nanocatalysts for the chemoselective hydrogenation of halonitrobenzene. Yongquan Qu et al. report the use of CeO2-supported alloyed PdAu catalysts for the selective semi-hydrogenation of phenylacetylene into styrene. Moreover, Xiaoqing Huang et al. report the use of Janus CuAg nanostructures for the water–gas shift reaction. Mohammad Joshaghani et al. report the preparation of Cu–Fe heterometallic nanostructures for Csp–S cross-coupling reactions. The size of nanoparticles often plays important roles in determining their catalytic activity and selectivity. It is thus important to study how the size of fine nanoparticles can be stabilized during catalysis. In this direction, Wei-Xue Li et al. report a theoretical study of Ostwald ripening of supported nanoparticles, in particular the dependence on metal–support interaction, sublimation energy and surface energy. It is our sincere hope that this special issue will draw additional attention to the field and stimulate further experimental and theoretical research for the development of selective nanocatalysts for practical use. Nanfeng Zheng received his B.S. from Xiamen University in 1998. In 2005, he obtained his Ph.D. degree in chemistry from University of California-Riverside. During 2005-2007, he worked on gold catalysis as a research associate at University of California-Santa Barbara. In 2007, he moved to Xiamen University as a full professor. He has been appointed as Cheung Kong Professor since 2010. He has received a number of awards including Distinguished Young Investigator Award from NSF of China (2009), Chinese National Young Scientist Award (2016). He is on the advisory editorial boards or editorial boards of several journals including ACS Cent. Sci., Nano Res., ACS Sustainable Chem. & Eng., Adv. Mater. Interfaces, ChemNanoMat, Small Methods, and Sci. China-Chem. His research interests focus on the surface and interface chemistry for the development of advanced functional materials for both fundamental research and practical applications, particularly in the fields of catalysis, energy, environmental science and biology.