Base metal promoted gold/titania catalysts were synthesized, characterized and tested in CO oxidation reaction. Catalysts containing dopant metals in higher oxidation states exhibited higher activity than catalysts containing dopants in reduced states. The activity of fresh catalysts promoted by Cu, Fe and Ni was similar to the unpromoted one, but treatment in reducing and oxidizing atmospheres...

The use of CeO2 and CeO2-containing materials as a component of heterogeneous industrial catalysts or as a support for transition metals is based on superior chemical and physical stability, high oxygen mobility and high oxygen vacancy concentrations, which are characteristic for the fluorite-type oxides (economically and technologically most important application is the use of ceria in the thr...

High-performance Cu/ZnO/(Al(2)O(3)) methanol synthesis catalysts are conventionally prepared by co-precipitation from nitrate solutions and subsequent thermal treatment. A new synthesis route is presented, which is based on similar preparation steps and leads to active catalysts, but avoids nitrate contaminated waste water.

Pd-based nanoparticles are promising candidates for non-Pt catalysts of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Trends in ORR activity of Pd/Cu-alloy-core@Pd-shell nanoparticles are studied by calculating the oxygen binding energy on the Pd surface with different Cu compositions in the alloy core. Density functional theory calculations show that several properties of the nanoparticle surface, incl...

A conservative CO2-Methanol (CH3OH) regeneration cycle, to capture and reutilize the greenhouse gas of CO2 by aqueous hydrogenation for industry-useful CH3OH and to convert aqueous CH3OH solution by dehydrogenation for the clean energy of hydrogen (H2), is demonstrated at normal temperature and pressure (NTP) with two kinds of CuMnOS nanoflower catalysts. The [Cu+]-high CuMnOS led to a CH3OH yi...

The surface electrocatalytic reactivity of noble metals, for instance Pt, has frequently been modified by alloying Pt with less noble metal atoms within the top surface and/or subsurface layer.1,2 Monolayers of pure Pt deposited on top of non-Pt substrates also showed significantly altered surface catalytic reactivity.3 Here, we report a distinctly different synthetic strategy to modify the sur...

Steam reforming of methanol (SRM) was investigated over Cu/ZrO2/CeO2 (CZC) catalysts prepared via a novel synthetic method based on coprecipitation and polymer templating. Structural characterization of the samples was performed by N2 adsorption-desorption, N2O decomposition, and X-ray diffraction. The variation of the Cu loading resulted in an increased Cu crystallite size and a decreased spec...

Catalysts have been widely used in industries and can be optimized by tuning the composition and chemical ordering of the elements involved in the nano-alloy. Among bi-metallic alloys, the Au-Cu system is of particular interest because it exhibits ordered phases at low temperatures. Nevertheless, the temperature at which these ordered structures are formed is totally unknown at the nanoscale. C...

Metal (Au, Cu)-modified Si nanowires (SiNWs) are superior catalysts for selective oxidation of hydrocarbons, while SiNWs are a powerful substrate support (enhance efficiency and selectivity) for nanocatalysts.

Copper catalyzes the electrochemical reduction of CO to valuable C2+ products including ethanol, acetate, propanol, and ethylene. These reactions could be very useful for converting renewable energy into fuels and chemicals, but conventional Cu electrodes are energetically inefficient and have poor selectivity for CO vs H2O reduction. Efforts to design improved catalysts have been impeded by th...