Engineering Heterogeneous Catalysts Using Novel Nanotechnology Synthesis

催化的选择性要求使用具有明确活性位点的材料。这些位点还需要是稳健的，以在用于其制备和活化以及用于催化过程的所有条件下存活。制造这种具有明确活性位点的材料在过去很难实现，但最近得到了纳米技术领域的一些帮助。位于滨江的加州大学的弗朗西斯科扎埃拉教授认为，在物理化学中制备具有极端特异性的催化剂位点现在是可能的，并且结果将是非常有用的。新的胶体和其他自组装合成方法现在可以用来制造具有特定尺寸和形状的纳米颗粒。该提案描述了开发用于制备具有明确结构和/或化学特性的金属基催化剂的一般合成方法的研究。提出了两个相互关联的研究方向：（1）使用Pt，Ni和Pd的纳米颗粒将具有独特的（111）或（100）面，暴露出窄分布的尺寸和明确的形状，用于制备非均相催化剂;和（2）通过几种方法封装这些金属纳米颗粒，以提高其稳定性并隔离其功能。就选择性和/或稳定性而言，期望的催化行为将是目标，特别是对于涉及烃转化的温和反应，例如烯烃和其它不饱和分子中的氢化和异构化。目的是将新的合成方法的使用与从使用模型系统的研究中获得的理解联合收割机结合起来，以设计用于温和催化过程的选择性和稳健的金属催化剂。这种方法的价值在于，它结合了三个独立社区开发的知识：自组装化学家，催化剂开发人员和表面科学家。成功将对依赖温和反应催化的新工业过程的设计产生影响，例如在食品工业中，由于反式脂肪对健康的不利影响，需要选择性地生产顺式烯烃。这项工作产生的一般合成方法也可能适用于制备其他用途的材料，如吸收剂，传感器和油漆。从这项工作中获得的知识将用于教育目的，以说明基本的固态合成和催化原理在本科生和研究生班。与拉丁美洲研究团体的合作将被伪造，并从研究中的代表性不足的群体（特别是西班牙裔）的学生参与将被大力推行。这是这所大学和大学的特点。

Selectivity in catalysis requires the use of materials with well-defined active sites. Those sites also need to be robust, to survive all of the conditions used for their preparation and activation and for the process of catalysis. The manufacturing of such materials with well-defined active sites has been difficult to achieve in the past, but has recently received some help from the field of nanotechnology. Professor Francisco Zaera of the University of California at Riverside believes preparation of catalyst sites with extreme specificity in physicochemistry is now possible, and the results will be extremely useful. New colloidal and other self-assembly synthetic methodologies can now be used to make nanoparticles with specific sizes and shapes. This proposal describes research to develop general synthetic approaches for the preparation of metal-based catalysts with well-defined structural and/or chemical characteristics. Two interconnected directions of research are proposed: (1) the use of nanoparticles of Pt, Ni, and Pd will be made with exclusive (111) or (100) facets exposed with narrow distributions of sizes and well-defined shapes for the preparation of heterogeneous catalysts; and (2) the encapsulation of those metal nanoparticles by several approaches as a way to increase their stability and isolate their functionality. Desirable catalytic behavior will be targeted in terms of selectivity and/or stability, in particular for mild reactions involving hydrocarbon conversions such as hydrogenations and isomerizations in olefins and other unsaturated molecules. The aim is to combine the use of novel synthetic methods with the understanding achieved from studies using model systems to design selective and robust metal catalysts for mild catalytic processes. The value of this approach is that it combines knowledge developed by three separate communities: self-assembly chemists, catalyst developers, and surface scientists. Success will have repercussions on the design of new industrialprocesses that rely on catalysis of mild reactions such as in the food industry, where selectivity for the production of cis olefins is desired because of the adverse health effects of trans fats. The general synthetic methodology generated by the work is also likely to apply to the preparation of materials for other uses such as absorbents, sensors, and paints. The knowledge deriving from this work will be used for educational purposes to illustrate basic solid-state synthesis and catalysis principles in undergraduate and graduate classes. Collaborations with Latin American research groups will be forged, and student participation from underrepresented groups in research (Hispanics in particular) will be strongly pursued. This is characteristic for this group and university.