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新闻资讯

Masahiro Ehara: Interface Region in Supported Nanocluster Catalysts

2017-04-26

Dr. Prof. Masahiro Ehara from Institute for Molecular  Science (Japan) will visit us and give us a talk in Apr. 26, 2017

The catalytic activity of supported metal  nanoparticles has been focused because they perform wide varieties of catalytic  reactions. In this talk, we overview our recent works on the catalytic reactions  at the interface region in supported nanocluster catalysts.

Bimetallic nanoparticles (NP) have been shown to exhibit certain  advantages over pure NPs in catalysis due to synergistic effect. Gold-Palladium  (Au/Pd) bimetallic nanocluster (NC) catalysts have been extensively investigated  because of their wide varieties of catalytic activity for various substrates.  Recently, we have developed the C-Cl bond activation under mild condition using  Au/Pd NP supported on poly-N-vinylpyrrolidone (PVP); the Ullmann coupling of  aryl chloride (ArCl) (Figure 1) [1]. We investigated the C-Cl bond activation on  Au/Pd NC for the oxidative addition of ArCl, which is a key step of this  homocoupling reaction [2]. We also studied the interactions between aqueous  solutions of N-ethylpyrrolidone (EP, system chosen to model the monomeric form  of PVP) and Au/Pd bimetallic NPs, which are relevant in catalysis, using  molecular dynamics simulations and density functional theory (DFT) method  [3].

The Ag NC catalyst supported on Al2O3 performs selective  hydrogenation of -NO2 group. We have investigated the H2 activation by Ag NC  supported on Al2O3(110) surface using the slab model DFT calculations [4]. The  interfacial cooperative mechanism between Ag cluster and Lewis acid-base pair  site (bare Al-O site) is essentially relevant for the H2 activation over  Ag-loaded Al2O3 catalysts.

1. R.N. Dhital, C. Kamonsatikul, E. Somsook, K. Bobuatong, M.  Ehara, S. Karanjit, H. Sakurai, J. Am. Chem. Soc.  134, 20250-20253 (2012).

2. B. Boekfa, E. Pahl, N. Gaston, H. Sakurai, J. Limtrakul, M.  Ehara, J. Phys. Chem. C. 118, 22188-22196  (2014).

3. A. Gupta, B. Boekfa, H. Sakurai, M. Ehara, U. Deva Priyakumar,  J. Phys. Chem. C. 120, 17454-17464 (2016).

4. P. Hirunsit, K. Shimizu, R. Fukuda, S. Namuangruk, Y. Morikawa,  M. Ehara, J. Phys. Chem. C, 118, 7996-8006  (2014).