Clarysse Jasper, Silva Jordan De Jesus, Xing Yunhua, Zhang Seraphine B X Y, Docherty Scott R, Yazdani Nuri, Yarema Maksym, Copéret Christophe, Wood Vanessa
ETH Zurich, Institute for Electronics, Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, Zurich, Switzerland.
ETH Zurich, Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, Zürich, Switzerland.
Nat Commun. 2025 May 12;16(1):4378. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-58838-8.
The development of catalysts that are based on earth-abundant metals remains a grand challenge. Alloy nanocrystals (NCs) form an emerging class of heterogeneous catalysts, offering the promise of small, uniform catalysts with composition-control. Here, we report the synthesis of small Ni and bimetallic Ni-X (X= Zn, Ga, In) NCs for alkyne semihydrogenation catalysis. We show that NiZn NCs are particularly reactive and selective under mild reaction conditions and at low loadings. While bimetallic NCs are all more selective than pure Ni NCs, Ni-Zn NCs also maintain excellent reactivity compared to Ni-Ga and Ni-In alloys. Ab-initio calculations can explain the differences in reactivity, indicating that, unlike Ga and In, Zn atoms interact with the substrates. We further show that NiZn NCs are robust and tolerate a broad range of substrates, which may be linked to the favorable amine-terminated surface.
开发基于储量丰富的金属的催化剂仍然是一项巨大的挑战。合金纳米晶体（NCs）构成了一类新兴的多相催化剂，有望提供具有成分可控性的小尺寸、均匀的催化剂。在此，我们报告了用于炔烃半加氢催化的小尺寸镍及双金属镍-X（X = 锌、镓、铟）纳米晶体的合成。我们表明，镍锌纳米晶体在温和的反应条件和低负载量下具有特别高的反应活性和选择性。虽然所有双金属纳米晶体都比纯镍纳米晶体更具选择性，但与镍镓和镍铟合金相比，镍锌纳米晶体也保持了优异的反应活性。从头算计算可以解释反应活性的差异，表明与镓和铟不同，锌原子与底物相互作用。我们进一步表明，镍锌纳米晶体具有稳定性，能耐受多种底物，这可能与有利的胺端基表面有关。
