从电子流动观点看催化剂在有机反应中的作用

分析和总结了催化剂催化有机化学反应的4种基本方式,包括建立电子流动通道、改变电子流动属性、加强电子流动能力和稳定电子流动结果。本文旨在揭示有机化学反应中催化剂作用的本质,以便学生更加深刻理解并掌握有机化学反应。     

1,3-丁二烯选择性加氢催化剂的设计策略以及构效关系

催化裂化是石油化工的核心单元之一.从催化裂化尾气中分离出来的碳四馏分富含许多的不饱和烯烃,如1-丁烯、顺、反式-2-丁烯以及少量的1,3-丁二烯,这些不饱和烯烃可以通过后续聚合反应,生成合成橡胶和工程塑料的重要原料,具有重要的应用价值.上述工艺过程对原料中1,3-丁二烯的含量(<100~200 ppm)有严苛的要求.采用选择性加氢技术对碳四馏分中的1,3-丁二烯进行选择性加氢,将其转化为更高附加值的单烯烃是一个理想的解决方案.然而,1,3-丁二烯加氢反应得到的单烯烃可能发生深度加氢得到副产物丁烷.因此,开发高效选择性加氢催化剂对碳四资源的利用具有重要的现实意义.另一方面,1,3-丁二烯加氢反应可以作为模型反应,用来考察选择性加氢催化剂的性能.基于此,该反应无论在工业界还是学术界均受到广泛关注.尽管如此,有关1,3-丁二烯加氢催化剂研究进展方面的综述极少.仅有关于1,3-丁二烯加氢作为模型反应的综述报道.本文对过去半个世纪以来1,3-丁二烯加氢反应中不同催化剂的发展历程进行系统综述,特别是包括Pd,Pt和Au等的单一贵金属催化剂.重点介绍以下内容:(1)固体催化剂构效关系,包括活性金属尺寸效应、晶面和形貌效应以及载体效应(晶相、孔道和酸碱性);(2)高性能催化剂的设计新策略,如单原子催化剂、核壳结构催化剂、金属-离子液复合催化体系以及载体的形貌调控;(3)催化剂的反应机理和失活机理.提出了1,3-丁二烯选择性加氢高性能催化剂开发面临的挑战,并对潜在的发展方向进行了展望.本文认为随着纳米技术和金属纳米材料合成方法的快速发展,对贵金属活性组分进行原子层面上的调控(包括形貌、尺寸以及单原子配位环境等)已成为可能.这将有助于研制出一类新型高性能选择性加氢催化材料,从而实现高转化率条件下高附加值单烯烃的定向转化.此外,载体的酸碱性和孔道结构的调控有助于进一步调节催化剂的抗积炭性能,也是未来发展的一个重要方向.     

用于电解水制氢的过渡金属有机骨架基催化剂

金属有机骨架(MOFs)材料因具有无机和有机的杂合性质、高度有序的多孔性、结构可修饰性、比表面积大和孔隙率高等特点,在催化领域具有广阔的应用前景。本文从氢能的开发利用角度出发,在纯MOFs、MOFs复合及衍生材料三个方面对近十年来过渡金属MOFs基催化剂在电解水制氢方面的重要研究进展进行了综述,着重针对材料的合成进行了探讨,以及在基础研究和产业应用的角度指出当前过渡金属MOFs基制氢催化剂面临的挑战和机遇,对其应用前景进行展望。     

Cobalt ferrite for direct cracking of methane to produce hydrogen and carbon nanostructure: Effect of temperature and methane flow rate

Cobalt ferrite (CoFe₂O₄) was used as a catalyst for direct methane cracking. The reaction was accomplished in a fixed bed reactor at normal atmospheric pressure, while gas flow rate (20–50 mL/min) and reaction temperature (800–900 °C) were varied. The fresh CoFe₂O₄ morphology is sponge-like particle with inverse spinel structure as revealed from SEM and XRD results. The methane conversions and hydrogen formation rate were increased with reaction temperature, while catalyst stability and induction period decreased. Increases of gas flow rate > 20 mL/min led to a decrease the overall catalytic activity of CoFe₂O₄ for methane cracking. The XRD results of spent catalysts revealed that CoFe alloy was the active phase of methane cracking. TGA analysis showed that the largest amount of deposited carbon was 70.46 % at (20 mL/min, 900 °C), where it was 34.40 % at (50 mL/min, 800 °C). The deposited carbon has the shape of spherical carbon nanostructures and/or nano sprouts as observed with SEM. Raman data confirmed the graphitization type of the deposited carbon.     

Back Cover: Bio-Inspired Bimetallic Cooperativity Through a Hydrogen Bonding Spacer in CO2 Reduction (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 8/2023)

At the core of carbon monoxide dehydrogenase (CODH) active site two metal ions together with hydrogen bonding scheme from amino acids orchestrate the interconversion between CO₂ and CO. We have designed a molecular catalyst implementing a bimetallic iron complex with an embarked second coordination sphere with multi-point hydrogen-bonding interactions. We found that, when immobilized on carbon paper electrode, the dinuclear catalyst enhances up to four fold the heterogeneous CO₂ reduction to CO in water with an improved selectivity and stability compared to the mononuclear analogue. Interestingly, quasi-identical catalytic performances are obtained when one of the two iron centers was replaced by a redox inactive Zn metal, questioning the cooperative action of the two metals. Snapshots of X-ray structures indicate that the two metalloporphyrin units tethered by a urea group is a good compromise between rigidity and flexibility to accommodate CO₂ capture, activation, and reduction.     

Ferric Single-Site Catalyst Confined in a Zeolite Framework for Propane Dehydrogenation

Non-oxidative dehydrogenation of propane is a highly efficient approach for industrial preparation of propene that is commonly catalyzed by noble Pt or toxic Cr catalysts and suffers from coking. In this work, ferric catalyst confined in a zeolite framework was synthesized by a hydrothermal procedure. The isolated Fe in the framework formed distorted tetrahedra, which were beneficial for the selective dehydrogenation of propane and reached over 95 % propene selectivity and over 99 % total olefins selectivity. This catalyst had a silanol-free structure and was oxygen tolerant, hydrothermally stable, and coke free, with a deactivation constant of 0.01 h⁻¹. This study provided guidance for the synthesis of structural heteroatomic zeolite and efficient propane non-oxidative dehydrogenation over early transition metals.     

Low Ruthenium Content Confined on Boron Carbon Nitride as an Efficient and Stable Electrocatalyst for Acidic Oxygen Evolution Reaction

To date, only a few noble metal oxides exhibit the required efficiency and stability as oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts under the acidic, high-voltage conditions that exist during proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE). The high cost and scarcity of these catalysts hinder the large-scale application of PEMWE. Here, we report a novel OER electrocatalyst for OER comprised of uniformly dispersed Ru clusters confined on boron carbon nitride (BCN) support. Compared to RuO₂, our BCN-supported catalyst shows enhanced charge transfer. It displays a low overpotential of 164 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm⁻², suggesting its excellent OER catalytic activity. This catalyst was able to operate continuously for over 12 h under acidic conditions, whereas RuO₂ without any support fails in 1 h. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations confirm that the interaction between the N on BCN support and Ru clusters changes the adsorption capacity and reduces the OER energy barrier, which increases the electrocatalytic activity of Ru.     

Engineering Heterogeneous Catalysis with Strong Metal–Support Interactions: Characterization,Theory and Manipulation

Strong metal–support interactions (SMSI) represent a classic yet fast-growing area in catalysis research. The SMSI phenomenon results in the encapsulation and stabilization of metal nanoparticles (NPs) with the support material that significantly impacts the catalytic performance through regulation of the interfacial interactions. Engineering SMSI provides a promising approach to steer catalytic performance in various chemical processes, which serves as an effective tool to tackle energy and environmental challenges. Our Minireview covers characterization, theory, catalytic activity, dependence on the catalytic structure and inducing environment of SMSI phenomena. By providing an overview and outlook on the cutting-edge techniques in this multidisciplinary research field, we not only want to provide insights into the further exploitation of SMSI in catalysis, but we also hope to inspire rational designs and characterization in the broad field of material science and physical chemistry.     

Design of Hollow Nanoreactors for Size- and Shape-Selective Catalytic Semihydrogenation Driven by Molecular Recognition

Mimicking the structures and functions of cells to create artificial organelles has spurred the development of efficient strategies for production of hollow nanoreactors with biomimetic catalytic functions. However, such structure are challenging to fabricate and are thus rarely reported. We report the design of hollow nanoreactors with hollow multishelled structure (HoMS) and spatially loaded metal nanoparticles. Starting from a molecular-level design strategy, well-defined hollow multishelled structure phenolic resins (HoMS-PR) and carbon (HoMS-C) submicron particles were accurately constructed. HoMS-C serves as an excellent, versatile platform, owing to its tunable properties with tailored functional sites for achieving precise spatial location of metal nanoparticles, internally encapsulated (Pd@HoMS-C) or externally supported (Pd/HoMS-C). Impressively, the combination of the delicate nanoarchitecture and spatially loaded metal nanoparticles endow the pair of nanoreactors with size–shape-selective molecular recognition properties in catalytic semihydrogenation, including high activity and selectivity of Pd@HoMS-C for small aliphatic substrates and Pd/HoMS-C for large aromatic substrates. Theoretical calculations provide insight into the pair of nanoreactors with distinct behaviors due to the differences in energy barrier of substrate adsorption. This work provides guidance on the rational design and accurate construction of hollow nanoreactors with precisely located active sites and a finely modulated microenvironment by mimicking the functions of cells.     

The Highly Controlled and Efficient Polymerization of Ethylene

The highly controlled and efficient polymerization of ethylene is a very attractive but challenging target. Herein we report on a Coordinative Chain Transfer Polymerization catalyst, which combines a high degree of control and very high activity in ethylene oligo- or polymerization with extremely high chain transfer agent (triethylaluminum) to catalyst ratios (catalyst economy). Our Zr catalyst is long living and temperature stable. The chain length of the polyethylene products increases over time under constant ethylene feed or until a certain volume of ethylene is completely consumed to reach the expected molecular weight. Very high activities are observed if the catalyst elongates 60 000 or more alkyl chains and the polydispersity of the strictly linear polyethylene materials obtained are very low. The key for the combination of high control and efficiency seems to be a catalyst stabilized by only one strongly bound monoanionic N-ligand.