As the spectrum of chemical reactions shifts, the catalysis community must have access to well-defined materials that exhibit appropriate surface area. Classic approaches of salt deposition followed by high temperature oxidation or reduction work well for monometallic catalysts, but fail when producing more complex binary non-noble metal intermetallic compound (IMC) catalysts. Several fundamental aspects of the precursor elements and compounds necessitate new approaches to synthesize supported nanoparticle IMC catalysts, e.g., elevated reactivity, aggressive oxophilicity, limited surface diffusion, and danger/sensitivity of organometallics. This study has focused upon developing reactive support methods to synthesize supported IMCs as nanoparticles. This approach combines deposited metal precursors with p-block elements from the surface of the support to produce strongly bound, phase-pure IMC nanoparticles with high surface area. Fundamental studies have focused upon understanding how fundamental properties of constituent elements of oxide, nitride, and carbide supports dictate their ability to provide reactive p-block elements (B, Al, or Si). Additionally, general surface chemical studies of the boride, aluminide, and silicides in a suite of common probe adsorption and dissociation reactions will also be discussed. Electronic structure analysis (band structure, DOS, and COHP) was utilized to understand the stability and surface chemistry of the IMCs. A selection of catalytic reaction results using borides, aluminides, and silicides will also be presented to illustrate the utility of these new catalytic materials.

Surface chemistry of first-row transition metal boride, aluminide, and silicide IMC and their synthesis as phase-pure supported nanoparticles

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