Nanocatalysis Beyond the Gold-Rush Era

摘要

Heterogeneous catalysis contributes to the creation of a very large fraction of global economic wealth. In particular, heterogeneously catalyzed reactions are at the center of energy production, pollution remediation, and the production of chemicals and pharmaceuticals.A significant number of heterogeneous catalytic processes are performed by transition-metal catalysts supported on metal oxides. Several of these metals belong to the platinum group and are quite expensive. Therefore, if smaller amounts of these metals could be utilized, significant cost reductions in technological processes might be achieved. With this motivation, scientists and engineers have studied particle-size effects in catalysis for a number of years. There are several key issues to be considered: 1) The relative abundance of low- and high-coordinate sites changes as a function of particle size. 2) Metal-support interactions might change with particle size. 3) The electronic structure of very small metal particles might exhibit quantum size effects.