Hydrogen spillover is a well-known phenomenon in heterogeneous catalysis; it involves H2 cleavage on an active metal followed by the migration of dissociated H species over an ‘inert’ support1–5. Although catalytic hydrogenation using the spilled H species, namely, spillover hydrogenation, has long been proposed, very limited knowledge has been obtained about what kind of support structure is required to achieve spillover hydrogenation1,5. By dispersing Pd atoms onto Cu nanomaterials with different exposed facets, Cu(111) and Cu(100), we demonstrate in this work that while the hydrogen spillover from Pd to Cu is facet independent, the spillover hydrogenation only occurs on Pd1/Cu(100), where the hydrogen atoms spilled from Pd are readily utilized for the semi-hydrogenation of alkynes. This work thus helps to create an effective method for fabricating cost-effective nanocatalysts with an extremely low Pd loading, at the level of 50 ppm, toward the semi-hydrogenation of a broad range of alkynes with extremely high activity and selectivity. Spillover hydrogenation is facet specific and occurs on atomically dispersed Pd catalyst on Cu(100). Knowing this, cost-effective catalysts with extremely low Pd loading are fabricated that successfully catalyse the semi-hydrogenation of a broad range of alkynes with high activity and selectivity.

Facet engineering accelerates spillover hydrogenation on highly diluted metal nanocatalysts.

Atomic regulation of metal catalysts has emerged as an intriguing yet challenging strategy to boost product selectivity. Here, we report a density functional theory-guided atomic design strategy for the fabrication of a NiGa intermetallic catalyst with completely isolated Ni sites to optimize acetylene semi-hydrogenation processes. Such Ni sites show not only preferential acetylene π-adsorption, but also enhanced ethylene desorption. The characteristics of the Ni sites are confirmed by multiple characterization techniques, including aberration-corrected high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy and X-ray absorption spectrometry measurements. The superior performance is also confirmed experimentally against a Ni5 Ga3 intermetallic catalyst with partially isolated Ni sites and against a Ni catalyst with multi-atomic ensemble Ni sites. Accordingly, the NiGa intermetallic catalyst with the completely isolated Ni sites shows significantly enhanced selectivity to ethylene and suppressed coke formation.

Adsorption Site Regulation to Guide Atomic Design of Ni–Ga Catalysts for Acetylene Semi‐Hydrogenation

Galvanic replacement, co-impregnation and sequential impregnation have been employed to prepare Pd-Cu bimetallic catalysts with less than 1 wt-% Cu and ca. 0.03 wt-% Pd for selective hydrogenation of acetylene in excess ethylene. High angle annular dark field-scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM) and H2 chemisorption results confirmed that Pd-Cu singleatom alloy structures were constructed in all three bimetallic catalysts. Catalytic tests indicated that when the conversion of acetylene was above 99%, the selectivity of ethylene of these three single atom alloy catalysts was still more than 73%. Furthermore, the single atom alloy catalyst prepared by sequential incipient wetness impregnation was found to have the best stability among the three procedures used. 
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Investigation of the preparation methodologies of Pd-Cu single atom alloy catalysts for selective hydrogenation of acetylene

5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) is an important platform chemical derived from C6 sugars and cellulose. The formed 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF) via hydrogenolysis of HMF was denoted as a promising and sustainable fuel candidate. The further improvement of DMF yield is the central premise of this work, which is based on the elucidation of the relationship between catalytic performance and active sites. Herein, a NiZn alloy catalyst was formed through Zn inclusion to Ni by controllable reduction of the NiZnAl hydrotalcite-derived NiO–ZnO–Al2O3 mixed oxide. The combination of temperature-programmed reduction (TPR), in situ X-ray diffraction (XRD), CO-adsorbed infrared spectroscopy (CO–IR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) revealed that the surface of the NiZn catalyst was composed of β1-NiZn while the bulk was composed of α-NiZn. Moreover, the surface Ni atoms were geometrically isolated by Zn atoms and modulated to be electron-rich. Finally, the rate of C═O/C—O hydrogenolysis over C═C/C—C hydrogenation f...

Inclusion of Zn into Metallic Ni Enables Selective and Effective Synthesis of 2,5-Dimethylfuran from Bioderived 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural

Intermetallics in catalysis: An exciting subset of multimetallic catalysts

The structures of ZnO-supported Ni catalysts were explored with in situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy, temperature-programmed reduction, X-ray diffraction, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), scanning transmission electron microscopy, and electron energy loss spectroscopy. Calcination of nickel nitrate on a nanoparticulate ZnO support at 450 °C results in the formation of Zn-doped NiO (ca. Ni0.85Zn0.15O) nanoparticles with the rock salt crystal structure. Subsequent in situ reduction monitored by X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) at the Ni K edge reveals a direct transformation of the Zn-doped NiO nanoparticles to a face-centered cubic alloy, Ni1–xZnx, at ∼400 °C with x increasing with increasing temperature. Both in situ XANES and ex situ HRTEM provide evidence for intermetallic β1-NiZn formation at ∼550 °C. In comparison to a Ni/SiO2 catalyst, Ni/ZnO necessitates a higher temperature for the reduction of NiII to Ni0, which highlights the strong interaction between Ni and...

Nicholas P. Sturgis

Papers

In Situ Spectroscopic Characterization of Ni1–xZnx/ZnO Catalysts and Their Selectivity for Acetylene Semihydrogenation in Excess Ethylene