Themed collection 2017 Catalysis Science & Technology HOT Articles

This work discusses how to best perform experiments and report data for the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide.

This perspective discusses the general concepts that will guide future catalysis and related grand challenges based on the Science and Technology Roadmap on Catalysis for Europe prepared by the European Cluster on Catalysis.

A detailed understanding of reaction mechanisms and kinetics is required in order to develop and optimize catalysts and catalytic processes. Temporal analysis of products (TAP) is an instrument capable of providing such understanding.

This review illustrates the recent developments of transition metal–phosphorus-based materials for electrocatalytic energy conversion reactions.

This short overview briefly summarizes the prominent evolutions and scientific breakthroughs in the development of end-of-pipe technologies with respect to the standard regulations of atmospheric pollutant emissions from automotive exhaust.

This review summarized the recent progress, limitations and challenges in using MOFs for photocatalytic CO₂ reduction, a green and sustainable strategy for CO₂ utilization.

Genuine, single-atom catalysis can be realized in the gas phase and probed by mass spectrometry combined with computational chemistry.

A review on additive manufacturing (AM) applied to heterogeneous catalysis reveals enabling power of AM and challenges to overcome in chemical interfacing and material printability.

This review article describes recent developments of iron-based acceptorless dehydrogenation (AD) reactions of fundamentally important feedstock, as a route to sustainable chemical synthesis and energy storage applications.

Direct sour natural gas catalytic conversion allows to obtain high value products, such as hydrocarbon and organosulfur chemicals, fuels and fertilizers.

The coupling of carbon dioxide (CO₂) with epoxides with the formation of cyclic carbonates is a highly attractive 100% atom economic reaction. It represents a greener and safer alternative to the conventional synthesis of cyclic carbonates from diols and toxic phosgene.

Layered double hydroxide and its derived metal oxides in the transformations of biomass-derived molecules.

Highly Lewis acidic aluminium fluorides are interesting heterogeneous catalysts for many reactions, especially C–H and C–F bonds can be activated at room temperature.

Oxygenated organic compounds in biorefinery aqueous effluents are transformed into a mixture of hydrocarbon fuel precursors by using a Nb oxide catalyst.

A rare example of a one-pot, palladium-catalyzed Suzuki–Heck sequence has been developed with applicability to APIs and organoelectronic materials.

Simple nickel salts, bis(acetylacetonato)nickel(II) and its derivatives, catalyzed the hydroboration reactions of aryl and alkyl nitriles with catechol borane.

Benzene was synthesized from CO₂ and H₂ by a tandem catalysis reaction comprising CO₂ methanation and CH₄ aromatization.

A discrete model for zeolite deactivation is built considering cage connectivity, in the inspiration of the game of Go.

Selective carbonyl coupling, high symmetric ether selectivity.

The influence of varying hydroperoxide concentrations in olefin feeds was systematically investigated in rhodium-catalyzed hydroformylation using a diphosphite ligand.

The catalytic ODH activation energy on CNTs significantly decreased by the introduction of metal oxides. The propane turn-over efficiency of each original carbon-based active site consequently increased exponentially.

An efficient and general method for Pd-catalyzed dehydrogenative aromatization of dihydro-heteroatom compounds without external O₂ and H₂ is first described.

D-Fructose-6-phosphate aldolase A (FSAA) from Escherichia coli was engineered for enhanced catalytic efficiency towards cinnamaldehyde.

The high ORR activities in acidic medium for the so-called Fe₂N- and Fe₃C-based catalysts actually originate from the trace of Fe–N_x/C moieties (x ≥ 4) rather than the Fe₂N or Fe₃C phases themselves.

Large pore high-Si beta zeolites (Si/Al = 136 to 340) were synthesized by a HF-assisted method, and their catalytic performance for the conversion of methanol to propene was explored.

Identification of activity trends for CO oxidation on transition-metal single-atom catalysts by using E_ad(CO) and E_ad(O₂) as descriptors.

An imine-based catalyst easily obtained by self-assembly of cheap and commercially available starting materials selectively catalyzes the hydroxylation of aromatic compounds.

Revealed linear relationships between oxygen coverage and electronic modification of the Mo₂C catalyst that tunes the reactivity for CO₂ reduction.

The influences of Nb on the Co-phase evolution, reducibility, chemisorption, and Fischer–Tropsch synthesis performance of catalysts were in situ researched.

Re–M/C catalysts were simply synthesized and a kinetic study was performed to provide insight into the effect of Re–M interactions.

Coverage-dependent calculations are required for an accurate DFT-based prediction of the activity and a correct mechanistic understanding of catalytic hydrogenation.

Nitric oxide hydrogenation is investigated on palladium and gold–palladium alloy crystallites, i.e. the extremity of sharp tip samples aimed at modelling a single catalytic grain.

Methoxy and formate species resulting from methanol adsorption on Cu supported on well-shaped CeO₂ are morphology-dependent.

OH at 3750 cm⁻¹ reacts with CO only in the presence of Au, indicating the importance of the Au/MgO interface.

We report herein an experimental study on the development of basicity on mesoporous silicas and metallosilicates (Nb- and Ce-) on SBA-15 and MCF porous structures.

CO₂ insertion is promoted by copper catalysts with more electron-rich monophosphine or less sterically hindered NHC ligands.

High performance catalysts switched by a series of silicon-bridged/N,P-based ancillary ligands have been explored.

Development of efficient and durable catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in an alkaline system is vital for the transformation of renewable energy into hydrogen fuel.

Multicomponent FeMoTeO catalysts have been synthesized and studied for mild propene oxidation to acrolein.

Experimental and DFT-based mechanistic studies are used to optimise Fe catalysts for aziridination.

Fe-SAPO-34 templated with Fe²⁺–polyamine complexes gives Fe³⁺ species upon calcination that are active for selective catalytic reduction of NO_x with ammonia.

The mechanism of Fe-catalyzed cyclic carbonate formation of CO₂ and internal epoxides was studied to identify design strategies for more efficient catalysts.

Macroscopic kinetic measurables are linked to elementary reaction steps by the degree of rate control.

A Fe–N–C electrocatalyst with active Fe^II–N₄ sites was synthesized exhibiting superior oxygen reduction performance in both alkaline and acidic electrolytes.

The significance of the non-Horiuti–Polanyi mechanism in understanding heterogeneous catalytic hydrogenation reactions is highlighted.

Rh nanoparticles that were inactive in toluene, were converted into a powerful catalyst for aryl alcohol oxidation by the presence of water in the reaction media.

Pt catalysts investigated with operando XAS under rapid transient temperature automotive driving cycle conditions.

Adding Fe³⁺ or Al³⁺ to the electrolyte resulted in fast promotion or poisoning, respectively, of catalysis for oxygen evolution at nickel–borate, and both effects were accompanied with anodic shifts in the redox peaks with potential scanning.

This paper reports on the influences of the catalyst preparation method and ligand effects for a series of highly active Cu/ZnO colloidal catalysts for the hydrogenation of CO₂ to methanol.

Dispersing two-dimensional VO_x species on β-SiC offers a new approach to scale up propane ODH.

A series of meso–macroporous silica supports with the same macroporous diameter but different mesoporous diameters were prepared by introducing phase separation into a sol–gel process and used to prepare cobalt catalysts for Fischer–Tropsch synthesis.

Selective formation of esters from primary alcohols or formic acid from carbon dioxide was achieved in the presence of phosphine-pyridone containing ruthenium catalysts.

Catalytic amounts of titanocene(III) borohydride, generated under mild conditions from commercially available titanocene dichloride, in concert with a stoichiometric hydride source is shown to effectively reduce aldehydes and ketones to their respective alcohols in aprotic media.

Bimetallic catalytic synergy, the concurrent action of two different metal ions in the same material, has resulted in improved efficiency in many catalytic systems and for a range of chemical processes.

Catalytic C–F activations at Lewis-acidic amorphous aluminum chlorofluoride (ACF) with Et₃GeH and Et₃SiH for reaction pathway control are presented.

Ultrasmall β- and α-molybdenum carbide particles were synthesized by a resin route and they showed different oxidation–recarburization cycles.

Designing MoS₂ nanocatalysts rich with active edge sites by engineering of the nanostructures is an effective strategy to enhance their catalytic activity.

Co (0001) prefers the CO insertion mechanism with high methane selectivity, but Co (101) prefers the carbide mechanism with high C₂-hydrocarbon selectivity.

First principles microkinetic modelling shows that, unlike in H-ZSM-5 and H-ZSM-22, trans-2-butene formation in H-FER occurs via direct dehydration of 1-butanol.

Combination catalyst systems composed of Pt/SiO₂ and lanthanoid oxides efficiently catalyze the hydrogenative ring-rearrangement of 5-(hydroxymethyl)furfural in water to produce 3-(hydroxymethyl)cyclopentanol which can be a unique chemical building block derived from biomass.

An adequate distribution of co-adsorbed reactants on the catalyst surface determines the activity of Zr-containing materials for the MPV reaction.

QM/MM calculations suggest two feasible pathways for the breaking of the C–C bond of the substrate. The breaking of the Cα–Cβ bond leads to the final product, whereas the cleavage of the Cα–C bond will terminate in the EPR-trapped radical intermediate.

Porous binary PtPd, AuPt, PtCu, and PtNi nanodendrites prepared by a facile one-step reduction under ultrasonic irradiation at room temperature, exhibited a substantial catalytic activity towards glucose oxidation reaction at different pH values relative to a commercial Pt/C catalyst.

A simple and robust two-step process with zeolites as catalysts converts sucrose in high yield into the versatile monosaccharide fructose.

Heterojunction structured MASnI₃/TiO₂ photocatalysts (MA represents CH₃NH₃⁺) are prepared via a facile wet-chemical method and characterized by various techniques.

Gas-phase hydrogenation of 1,3-butadiene was investigated over Pt/SiO₂ catalysts with the aim of understanding the complete hydrogenation of dienes.

The ability of a zeolitic catalyst to dehydrate methanol to dimethyl ether affects catalyst deactivation and product distribution during the methanol-to-hydrocarbons (MTH) reaction.

The Ln₂Zr₂O₇ phase varies from pyrochlore to defective fluorite with decreasing r_A/r_B, thus resulting in Ni/Ln₂Zr₂O₇ catalysts with improved performance.

The reaction rate of rhodium-catalyzed hydrogenation of alkynes was shown to be strongly influenced by the transfer of the hydrogen gas into the solution and stirring in the solution.

Betaine, a simple zwitterionic additive, dramatically accelerated the CuAAC reaction in excellent yields under 2.5–200 ppm levels of Cu^(I) in water.