Uplifting promoters in catalysis: the art of metal nanoparticles

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Uplifting promoters in catalysis: the art of metal nanoparticles Daily vitamins and cancer drugs, plastics and hygiene products, stationary and mobile exhaust treatments, fuel production, etc. - there is virtually no aspect of tangible life that would be possible without catalysts. A “good” catalyst implies that a technology is enabled at the lowest possible energy consumption and waste generation. Single elements are rarely efficient enough, and the world of catalysis relies heavily on the use of promoters - other elements or substances that boost the catalytic action. Scientists all over the world strive to find new combinations from across the periodic table to improve the existing catalysts or design new ones for emerging technologies. Many contemporary industrial catalysts include platinum-group metals that are scarce and expensive but very efficient, in part because of the outstanding ability to activate hydrogen, one of the most important molecules in chemical transformations. We aim to replace or dramatically reduce the amount of Pt-group metals in reductive catalysis by Earth-abundant elements with significant resources in Canada. The exemplary promoter to be addressed is cerium, which is known as an efficient catalyst or promoter in oxidative catalysis, with very few recent reports on its hydrogenating ability. In order to design the most efficient catalysts, we will concentrate not only on WHAT the additive is, but, of equal importance, WHERE it is located via HOW it is introduced, and we will apply colloidal chemistry techniques to synthesize ceria-based bimetallic advanced catalytic materials. We believe that our synthetic approach to catalyst preparation - “the art of metal nanoparticles” - may result in unprecedented effects of cerium in a variety of reductive applications, such as hydrogenations for vitamin and perfume synthesis, hydrogenolysis in fuel and biomass upgrading, etc. In the long term, the research vision and the proposed program aim to contribute to a critical mass of discoveries to shift the paradigm of “catalyst-promoter” mixing to “rational promotion” to enable catalyst improvement for existing processes and catalyst discoveries for emerging and yet unknown technologies. An exemplary impact in terms of policy change is the potential advancement of resource-conscious exploration of Earth-abundant cerium in Canada, implying job creation and obvious socio-economic benefits.