Colloidal metallic nanoparticle (NP) catalysts are typically coated with ligands, which affect their activity. When NPs are immobilized on supports to form heterogeneous catalysts, those supports modify their activity through their surface properties as well as electronic coupling. Here, I will detail our recent explorations on how attaching specific ligands to NP and modifying the surface of the support can increase the catalytic activity through attractive interactions between the catalytic substrate and the ligand or modified support. In the field of enzyme engineering, utilizing such attractive interactions is an emerging approach to enhance enzymatic activity, and in nature such interactions are often used in mechanisms such as substrate channeling. We expand this approach to inorganic catalysts, focusing on electrostatic interactions. We use 4-nitrophenol reduction as our model reaction, and positively-charged modifications which attract the negatively-charged 4-nitrophenolate and borohydride. The attractive interactions likely increase the local concentration of substrates at the catalyst, tilting the equilibrium toward product formation. Affinity-based catalytic enhancement has the potential to improve the catalytic activity in a variety of reactions, and represents a promising approach to customizing and improving NP-based catalysts.

Affinity-based enhancement of the activity of nanoparticle catalysts

Fall 2022 abstracts, posters, and presentations will launch in mid-September.

ACS Fall 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.