Catalytic processes are central to the goal of a sustainable future. A promising approach in developing catalytic materials is represented by the design of catalytic sites based on the knowledge of reaction mechanisms and structure-property relationships and aided by computation, and in the precise synthesis of these sites at the atomic and molecular level. The materials-pressure gap, however, still hinder the full realization of this strategy. Nanocrystal precursors, with tunable active sites and compositions, can help bridge this gap. The goal of this talk is to show how this approach can provide not only fundamental understanding of catalytic reactions, but also represent a way to precisely engineer catalytic sites to produce efficient catalysts that are active, stable and selective for several important catalytic transformations. More in detail, I will briefly show our efforts in better understanding the mechanism of colloidal nanocrystal formation, to control their structure and composition at the nanometer level. I will then show the use of uniform monometallic Pd and bimetallic Pd/Pt catalysts to understand trends in methane combustion, and Ru catalysts for low-temperature methane conversion to syngas. In all these works, a strong connection to efforts in theory and structural characterization within SUNCAT has been crucial to obtain precious structure-property relationships. This knowledge is used to prepare more efficient catalysts for hydrocarbon activation and other processes for sustainable production of fuels and chemicals.

Understanding and tuning catalytic materials For methane activation using nanocrystal precursors

255th National Meeting (2018)

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