Themed collection Carbon for Catalysis


Carbon surface chemistry drives speciation and reactivity of cationic Fe species in CO2 activation: a HERFD-XANES and valence-to-core XES study
HERFD-XANES, VtC-XES and electroanalysis reveal how Fe coordination dictates CO2 reactivity, guiding catalyst design. N-coordinated Fe–OH on N-doped graphene activates CO2 to form bicarbonates, unlike FeTCPP, where direct Fe–CO2 coordination occurs.
Catal. Sci. Technol., 2025, Advance Article
https://doi.org/10.1039/D5CY00336A

Activation strategies for rice husk biochar: enhancing porosity and performance as a support for Pd catalysts in hydrogenation reactions
Different activation methods were applied to rice husk biochar from slow pyrolysis for use as sustainable catalyst support. Results show activation method greatly affects performance, with KOH activation yielding especially strong results.
Catal. Sci. Technol., 2025, Advance Article
https://doi.org/10.1039/D5CY00242G
Monolithic wood-based carbon supported Pd nanoparticles with tunable exposure for boosting semi-hydrogenation of alkynols
Monolithic wood-based carbon supported Pd nanoparticles with tunable exposure achieving semi-hydrogenation of alkynols to enols with high activity and stability.
Catal. Sci. Technol., 2025,15, 2238-2247
https://doi.org/10.1039/D4CY01543F

Toward decorrelation of surface oxygen groups from metal dispersion effects in Pd/C hydrogenation catalysts
Adjusting the surface functionalization of the carbon support allows controlling the capping ligand spillover and consequently the surface Pd(0)/Pd2+ ratio, which in turn impacts the catalyst performances.
Catal. Sci. Technol., 2025,15, 2034-2048
https://doi.org/10.1039/D4CY01562B

Effect of Cs and Ba promoters on Ni/graphite catalysts for CO2 conversion via the reverse water gas shift reaction
Cs promotion of graphite Ni catalysts boosts the selective conversion of CO2 to CO, while Ba promotes the methanation process.
Catal. Sci. Technol., 2025,15, 1948-1957
https://doi.org/10.1039/D4CY01331J
Molecularly engineered carbon nanostructures derived from Parthenium hysterophorus for ultralow detection of lead(II) ions
Parthenium hysterophorus-derived molecularly engineered carbon nanostructures demonstrating high sensitivity and selectivity in the electrochemical sensing of lead(II) ions.
Catal. Sci. Technol., 2025,15, 708-721
https://doi.org/10.1039/D4CY00975D

The effect of separation distance on hydrogen spillover in Os promoted Co@HCS catalysts
Decreasing the carbon shell thickness increased the reducibility of Co3O4. The reducibility of Co3O4 was further achieved by adding an Os promoter outside of the sphere showing that H spillover was favoured over H2 diffusion/Co reduction by carbon.
Catal. Sci. Technol., 2025,15, 334-343
https://doi.org/10.1039/D4CY00758A
About this collection
Carbon, one of the earth's most abundant resources, is finding more and more applications in broad areas of science. Catalysis has felt the benefit of the increasing attention paid to carbon and its uses, with a variety of applications in its field. This includes but is not limited to, carbon-supported heterogenous catalysts, carbon-based homogenous catalysts, carbon reaction mediums, carbon electrodes for electro- and photocatalysis, carbon as a feedstock and many more.
This themed collection is Guest Edited by Xulian Pan (ORCID: 0000-0002-5906-6675) (Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, China), Andrea Rossin (ORCID: 0000-0002-1283-2803) (CNR-ICCOM, Italy), & De Chen (ORCID: 0000-0002-1283-2803) (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway)