Supported metal nanostructures are the most widely used type of heterogeneous catalyst in industrial processes. The size of metal particles is a key factor in determining the performance of such catalysts. In particular, because low-coordinated metal atoms often function as the catalytically active sites, the specific activity per metal atom usually increases with decreasing size of the metal particles. However, the surface free energy of metals increases significantly with decreasing particle size, promoting aggregation of small clusters. Using an appropriate support material that strongly interacts with the metal species prevents this aggregation, creating stable, finely dispersed metal clusters with a high catalytic activity, an approach industry has used for a long time. Nevertheless, practical supported metal catalysts are inhomogeneous and usually consist of a mixture of sizes from nanoparticles to subnanometer clusters. Such heterogeneity not only reduces the metal atom efficiency but also frequent...

Single-atom catalysts: a new frontier in heterogeneous catalysis.

Catalyst productivity and selectivity to C5+ hydrocarbons are critical design criteria in the choice of Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) catalysts and reactors. Cobalt-based catalysts appear to provide the best compromise between performance and cost for the synthesis of hydrocarbons from CO/H2 mixtures. Optimum catalysts with high cobalt concentration and site density can be prepared by controlled reduction of nitrate precursors introduced via melt or aqueous impregnation methods. FTS turnover rates are independent of Co dispersion and support identity over the accessible dispersion range (0.01–0.12) at typical FTS conditions. At low reactant pressures or conversions, water increases FTS reaction rates and the selectivity to olefins and to C5+ hydrocarbons. These water effects depend on the identity of the support and lead to support effects on turnover rates at low CO conversions. Turnover rates increase when small amounts of Ru (Ru/Co<0.008 at.) are added to Co catalysts. C5+ selectivity increases with increasing Co site density because diffusion-enhanced readsorption of α-olefins reverses, β-hydrogen abstraction steps and inhibits chain termination. Severe diffusional restrictions, however, can also deplete CO within catalyst pellets and decrease chain growth probabilities. Therefore, optimum C5+ selectivities are obtained on catalysts with moderate diffusional restrictions. Diffusional constraints depend on pellet size and porosity and on the density and radial location of Co sites within catalyst pellets. Slurry bubble column reactors and the use of eggshell catalyst pellets in packed-bed reactors introduce design flexibility by decoupling the characteristic diffusion distance in catalyst pellets from pressure drop and other reactor constraints.

Design, synthesis, and use of cobalt-based Fischer-Tropsch synthesis catalysts

Surface studies of supported model catalysts

Recent advances in colloidal synthesis enabled the precise control of the size, shape and composition of catalytic metal nanoparticles, enabling their use as model catalysts for systematic investigations of the atomic-scale properties affecting catalytic activity and selectivity. The organic capping agents stabilizing colloidal nanoparticles, however, often limit their application in high-temperature catalytic reactions. Here, we report the design of a high-temperature-stable model catalytic system that consists of a Pt metal core coated with a mesoporous silica shell (Pt@mSiO2). Inorganic silica shells encaged the Pt cores up to 750 ∘C in air and the mesopores providing direct access to the Pt core made the Pt@mSiO2 nanoparticles as catalytically active as bare Pt metal for ethylene hydrogenation and CO oxidation. The high thermal stability of Pt@mSiO2 nanoparticles enabled high-temperature CO oxidation studies, including ignition behaviour, which was not possible for bare Pt nanoparticles because of their deformation or aggregation. The results suggest that the Pt@mSiO2 nanoparticles are excellent nanocatalytic systems for high-temperature catalytic reactions or surface chemical processes, and the design concept used in the Pt@mSiO2 core–shell catalyst can be extended to other metal/metal oxide compositions. Colloidal synthesis can help to precisely control the shape and composition of catalytic metal nanoparticles, but it has so far proved difficult to use these particles in high-temperature reactions. Core–shell structures capable of isolating Pt-mesoporous silica nanoparticles have now been shown to be catalytically active for ethylene hydrogenation and CO oxidation at high temperature.

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Thermally stable Pt/mesoporous silica core–shell nanocatalysts for high-temperature reactions

The influence of cobalt particle size in the range of 2.6-27 nm on the performance in Fischer-Tropsch synthesis has been investigated for the first time using well-defined catalysts based on an inert carbon nanofibers support material. X-ray absorption spectroscopy revealed that cobalt was metallic, even for small particle sizes, after the in situ reduction treatment, which is a prerequisite for catalytic operation and is difficult to achieve using traditional oxidic supports. The turnover frequency (TOF) for CO hydrogenation was independent of cobalt particle size for catalysts with sizes larger than 6 nm (1 bar) or 8 nm (35 bar), while both the selectivity and the activity changed for catalysts with smaller particles. At 35 bar, the TOF decreased from 23 x 10(-3) to 1.4 x 10(-3) s(-1), while the C5+ selectivity decreased from 85 to 51 wt % when the cobalt particle size was reduced from 16 to 2.6 nm. This demonstrates that the minimal required cobalt particle size for Fischer-Tropsch catalysis is larger (6-8 nm) than can be explained by classical structure sensitivity. Other explanations raised in the literature, such as formation of CoO or Co carbide species on small particles during catalytic testing, were not substantiated by experimental evidence from X-ray absorption spectroscopy. Interestingly, we found with EXAFS a decrease of the cobalt coordination number under reaction conditions, which points to reconstruction of the cobalt particles. It is argued that the cobalt particle size effects can be attributed to nonclassical structure sensitivity in combination with CO-induced surface reconstruction. The profound influences of particle size may be important for the design of new Fischer-Tropsch catalysts.

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Cobalt particle size effects in the fischer- : Tropsch reaction studied with carbon nanofiber supported catalysts

The statistics of surface atoms and surface sites on metal crystals

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the effect of the metal particle size on the properties of a metal-on-carrier catalyst. To relate the adsorptive and catalytic properties of metal crystals to the crystal size, the structure of the crystal surface on an atomic scale must be known. This information is obtained from studies on crystal models. A surface atom has a smaller number of nearest neighbors than an atom in the interior of the crystal. The chapter illustrates the infrared studies on the adsorption of N2, CO, and CO2. The infrared spectra were recorded with a Grubb–Parson single-beam grating spectrometer provided with a GS 4-type monochromator. From thermodynamic considerations, it is evident that bulk nickel cannot be oxidized by CO2. In addition, the reaction of benzene with deuterium is an excellent means for studying the influence of the particle size on the catalytic activity.

F. Hartog

Papers

The statistics of surface atoms and surface sites on metal crystals

Influence of Metal Particle Size in Nickel-on-Aerosil Catalysts on Surface Site Distribution, Catalytic Activity, and Selectivity