2023年3月15日上午10点，天津大学学报（英文版）系列学术讲座第41期将在科研云Bilibili和邃瞳科学云微信视频号平台上线！本期我们邀请到Prof. Bruce C. Gates （University of California, Davis）带来题为“Nested Metal Catalysts: Metal Atoms and Clusters Stabilized by Confinement with Accessibility on Supports”的精彩讲座！更多精彩，敬请期待！

Abstract

Supported catalysts that are important in technology prominently include atomically dispersed metals and metal clusters. When the metals are noble, they are typically unstable—susceptible to sintering—especially under reducing conditions. Embedding the metals in supports such as organic polymers, metal oxides, and zeolites confers stability on the metals, but at the cost of catalytic activity associated with the lack of accessibility of metal bonding sites to reactants. An approach to stabilizing noble metal catalysts while maintaining their accessibility involves anchoring them in molecular-scale nests that are in or on supports. The nests include zeolite pore mouths; zeolite surface cups (half-cages); raft-like islands of oxophilic metals bonded to metal oxide supports; clusters of non-noble metals (e.g., hosting noble metals as single-atom alloys); and nano-scale metal oxide islands that selectively bond to the catalytic metals, isolating them from the support. These examples illustrate a trend toward precision in synthesis of solid catalysts, and the latter two classes of nested catalysts offer realistic prospects for economical large-scale application.   

Biography

Bruce C. Gates has been a professor of chemical engineering at the University of California, Davis, since 1992, and has just entered emeritus status. His research group has recently focused on supported metal catalysts, including structurally well-defined mononuclear metal complexes and clusters. They collaborate with numerous research groups and have strived to combine skills for precise synthesis bolstered by multi-technique structure investigations that provide spectroscopic and microscopic evidence of catalysts in the functioning state bolstered by catalyst performance evaluations and electronic structure calculations. They investigate catalytically important metals, especially noble metals, emphasizing supports that are crystallographically well-defined, including zeotypes, metal–organic frameworks, and crystalline metal oxides such as MgO.