Energy consumption in large-scale chemical production can be decreased through the development of novel catalysts which are highly selective to the desired product and which operate at moderate temperatures, thus avoiding waste and decreasing energy input. The combination of alloy materials, which blend metal compositions, and mesoscale structures, which bridge multiple length scales, opens up an abundance of promising opportunities for the design of energy-efficient catalysts that also make economical use of limited resources, such as precious metals. We report the tailored synthesis of hollow nanoporous gold microspheres, which integrate nanoscale structures into functional mesoscale architectures to achieve key catalytic functionality while mitigating the mass transport limitations associated with monolithic nanoporous gold materials. These mesoscale gold materials are active for the selective oxidative coupling of alcohols to form esters, and have a significantly higher activity per gram than existing monolithic nanoporous gold materials. Further, these materials retain their activity over an extended period of approximately four weeks. The method used to synthesize these hollow gold materials has the potential to be generalizable to structures with a variety of other compositions and morphologies. Therefore, computational modeling can be instrumental in guiding the design of new catalytic materials based on this platform.

Tailored mesoscale gold alloy materials for energy- and resource-efficient catalysis

249th National Meeting (2015)

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