The emergence of Heusler alloy catalysts

Abstract

For over a century, Heusler alloys (X 2 YZ; X, Y: transition metals, Z: typical metals) have attracted attention as magnetic materials. Nowadays, they are also popular as thermoelectric and shape memory materials. However, until very recently, Heusler alloys had been almost unknown as catalysts. We conceived that they could be ideal candidates for catalysts because (1) they have so many elemental sets and (2) they can be partially substituted with other elements (e.g. X 2 YZ 1-x Z' x) in many cases. We first investigated a variety of Heusler alloys as catalysts and then discovered effective catalysts without precious metals for the selective hydrogenation of alkynes based on the aforementioned feature (1) and demonstrated a systematic tuning of catalytic properties by applying the feature (2). Heusler alloy catalysts have also recently been studied by other groups; hence, this traditional alloy group is becoming a new stream in terms of catalysis. In this article, we review the current progress on Heusler alloy catalysts and describe their future prospects.

Catalytic Properties of Heusler Alloys for Steam Reforming of Methanol

“…Heusler alloys (X 2 YZ) constitute a group of ternary intermetallic compounds with an L2 1 structure (other types are also present). 4 Typically, the main element X belongs to groups 8–12, while subelements Y and Z belong to groups 3–8 and 13–15, respectively, which is similar to most of the intermetallic catalysts reported thus far. Various possible elemental sets of X, Y, and Z can afford new catalysts, and catalysis can be tuned by utilizing in-between compositions (e.g., X 2 YZ 0.5 Z 0.5 ′ ).…”

Intermetallic compounds in catalysis – a versatile class of materials meets interesting challenges

“…Especially in the latter, the stability of the compounds seems to be an issue. A recent review on this topic has been published by Kojima[ 86 ].…”

Magnetocatalysis: The Interplay between the Magnetic Field and Electrocatalysis

“…More interestingly, the reaction rate can be boosted significantly by element substitution without changing selectivity. [30,31] Heusler compounds are recently confirmed to be potential catalysts for oxygen evolution reactions. The catalytic activities are closely related to the e g orbital filling of the active sites, suggesting the importance of the magnetic properties of the catalysts.…”