Lithium and boron as interstitial palladium dopants for catalytic partial hydrogenation of acetylene.

It is demonstrated that light elements, including lithium and boron atoms, can take residence in the octahedral (interstitial) site of a Pd lattice by modifying the electronic properties of the metal nanoparticles, and hence the adsorptive strength of a reactant. The blocking of the sub-surface sites to H in the modified materials results in significantly higher selectivity for the partial catalytic hydrogenation of acetylene to ethylene.