Anomalous Role of Carbon in Pd-Catalyzed Selective Hydrogenation.

Carbonaceous species, including subsurface carbidic carbon and surface carbon, play crucial roles in heterogeneous catalysis. Many reports suggested the importance of subsurface carbon in the selective hydrogenation of alkynes over Pd-based catalysts. However, the role of surface carbon has been largely overlooked.

Improved Selectivity and Stability in Methane Dry Reforming by Atomic Layer Deposition on Ni-CeO-ZrO/AlO Catalysts.

Ni can be used as a catalyst for dry reforming of methane (DRM), replacing more expensive and less abundant noble metal catalysts (Pt, Pd, and Rh) with little sacrifice in activity. Ni catalysts deactivate quickly under realistic DRM conditions. Rare earth oxides such as CeO, or as CeO-ZrO-AlO (CZA), are supports that improve both the activity and stability of Ni DRM systems due to their redox activity.

Solvent-Free Depolymerization of Plastic Waste Enabled by Plastic-Catalyst Interfacial Engineering.

Depolymerization of condensation polymers by chemolysis often suffers from the large usage of solvents and homogeneous catalysts such as acids, bases, and metal salts. The catalytic efficiency of heterogeneous catalysts is largely constrained by the poor interfacial contact between solid catalysts and solid plastics below melting points. We report here our discovery of autogenous heterogeneous catalyst layer on polyethylene terephthalate surfaces during the generally believed homogeneous catalytic depolymerization process.

Elucidating the Roles of Amorphous Alumina Overcoat in Palladium-Catalyzed Selective Hydrogenation.

Amorphous alumina overcoats generated by atomic layer deposition (ALD) have been shown to improve the selectivity and durability of supported metal catalysts in many reactions. Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain the enhanced catalytic performance, but the accessibilities of reactants through the amorphous overcoats remain elusive, which is crucial for understanding reaction mechanisms. Here, we show that an AlO ALD overcoat is able to improve the alkene product selectivity of a supported Pd catalyst in acetylene (CH) hydrogenation.

Construction of Inverse Metal-Zeolite Interfaces via Area-Selective Atomic Layer Deposition.

The spatial confinement at metal-zeolite interfaces offers a powerful knob to steer the selectivity of chemical reactions on metal catalysts. However, encapsulating metal catalysts into small-pore zeolites remains a challenging task. Here, we demonstrate an inverse design of metal-zeolite interfaces, "" constructed by area-selective atomic layer deposition.