Confinement Effects in Zeolite‐Confined Noble Metals

Abstract

Confinement of noble nanometals in a zeolite matrix is a promising way to special types of catalysts that show significant advantages in size control, site adjustment, and nano‐architecture design. The beauty of zeolite‐confined noble metals lies in their unique confinement effects on a molecular scale, and thus enables spatially confined catalysis akin to enzyme catalysis. In this Minireview, the confined synthesis strategies of zeolite‐confined noble metals will be briefly discussed, showing the processes, advantages, features, and mechanisms. The confined catalysis carried on zeolite‐confined noble metals will be summarized, and great emphasis will be paid to the confinement effects involving size, encapsulation, recognition, and synergy. Great progress of atomic sites in the size effect, supercage stabilization in the encapsulation effect, site adsorption in the recognition effect, and cascade reaction in the synergy effect are highlighted. This Minireview is concluded with challenges and opportunities in terms of the synthesis of zeolite‐confined noble metals and their applications to design multifunctional catalysts with high catalytic activity, selectivity, and stability.

Reversing sintering effect of Ni particles on γ-Mo2N via strong metal support interaction

“…To enhance the sintering-resistance ability of catalysts, a number of confinement strategies that encapsulate the metal particles within the pores/tunnels of the porous materials, such as carbon nanotubes 9 , 10 , zeolites 11 , 12 , and metal-organic frameworks 13 – 15 (MOFs) etc., have been proposed. The feasibilities of these confinement methods have been widely demonstrated to prevent the migration and interparticle aggregation of metal particles.…”

Supported Pt Nanoparticles on Mesoporous Titania for Selective Hydrogenation of Phenylacetylene

“…A reduced hydrogen reduction temperature is generally observed on the small NPs functionalized supports, which greatly benefits hydrogenation activity by virtue of strong hydrogen spillover (Wang et al, 2015 ; Wei et al, 2018 ). The decrease of particle sizes also enables more surface-exposed and low-coordinated active sites in the form of corner or edge sites, potentially favoring weak π-adsorbed alkenes (Kleis et al, 2011 ; Yang et al, 2013 ; Wu et al, 2019 ). Thus, smaller Pt NPs hold great potential to catalyze semi-hydrogenation of alkynes with high catalytic activity and alkene selectivity.…”

Synthesis and Characterization of Trimetallic Fe-Co-V/Zeolite and Fe-Co-Mo/Zeolite Composite Nanostructures

“…Farrusseng and Tuel 18 also exhibited perspectives and applications of zeolite-encapsulated metal nanoparticles in catalysis. Wu et al 19 explained the noble nanometals confinement in a zeolite matrix. They showed significant benefits in size and site adjustment, and nano-architecture design.…”