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).
