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Single-particle reconstruction can be used to perform three-dimensional (3D) imaging of homogeneous populations of nano-sized objects, in particular viruses and proteins. Here, it is demonstrated that it can also be used to obtain 3D reconstructions of heterogeneous populations of inorganic nanoparticles. An automated acquisition scheme in a scanning transmission electron microscope is used to collect images of thousands of nanoparticles. Particle images are subsequently semi-automatically clustered in terms of their properties and separate 3D reconstructions are performed from selected particle image clusters. The result is a 3D dataset that is representative of the full population. The study demonstrates a methodology that allows 3D imaging and analysis of inorganic nanoparticles in a fully automated manner that is truly representative of large particle populations.

Localized surface plasmons generated on metallic nanostructures can be used to accelerate molecular transformations; however, the efficiency is limited by the challenge to control the energy/charge transfer at the interfaces. Here, we combine density functional theory (DFT) calculations and experiments to reveal the mechanism of nitrophenol reduction on Au nanoparticles under visible-light irradiation and propose a strategy to further enhance the reaction rates. DFT calculations show a reduced activation barrier under electronic excitation on Au(111), thus explaining the measured higher rates under visible-light irradiation. Furthermore, we propose a heterostructure with Au nanoparticles covered by a thin film of hexagonal boron nitride; the latter is used to decouple the molecular orbitals from the metal to enable charge localization in the molecule. DFT calculations show that by this electronic decoupling, the activation barrier can be lowered by a factor of five. This work thus provides a valuable strategy for optimizing catalytic efficiency in plasmonic photocatalysis.

Con la finalidad de proporcionar materiales de construcción que contribuyan con el sostenimiento del medio ambiente, se fabrican mezclas binarias y ternarias de concreto hidráulico correspondientes a sistemas cementicios con adiciones de cemento Portland, ceniza volante y escoria de alto horno. El programa experimental comprendió la fabricación y ensayo de 60 especímenes de concreto para 4 mezclas binarias de diferentes dosificaciones, para las que fueron evaluadas sus propiedades de resistencia a compresión, así como la medición de sus curvas esfuerzo-deformación en el ensayo de compresión. Los resultados obtenidos indican que las mezclas binarias presentan en estado endurecido las mejores propiedades mecánicas para contenidos de cenizas volantes y escorias de alto horno equivalentes al 20%. Con base en los resultados experimentales de este estudio, fueron formuladas ecuaciones de predicción de las propiedades mecánicas para las mezclas binarias con el fin representar el comportamiento de los concretos evaluados en función del porcentaje de adición empleado. Las ecuaciones de predicción propuestas son adecuadas ya que indican una estrecha relación entre los parámetros observados en la experimentación y los calculados en la predicción.

We focus herein on understanding how the oxidation mechanism of glucose may be affected by the nature of the surface facets of Cu2O-based electrocatalytic sensors. To this end, we performed a series of in situ FTIR spectroelectrochemical experiments and DFT simulations by employing Cu2O cubes and octahedra as electrocatalytic sensors for glucose and other interferents. Interestingly, our in situ results demonstrated that the glucose oxidation mechanism displayed shape-dependent behavior, indicating that the glucose molecule can selectively adsorb on the Cu2O {1 0 0} facets relative to ascorbate and urate interferents in a process that probably occurs without the need for an external potential. However, when the same reaction was performed in the presence of Cu2O octahedra ({1 1 1} facets), the reaction was not selective, and the final product remained on the surface, blocking the sites for further glucose oxidation and leading to significantly lower electrocatalytic activities. Surprisingly, no bands related to the formation of Cu3+ species were detected, indicating that Cu3+ species do not participate in the reaction mechanism. This is very important because these species have been assumed to be the catalytically active sites for glucose oxidation. We believe that the results presented herein provide new insights into different aspects of the oxidation of carbohydrates and may inspire a deeper mechanistic investigation of other semiconductor materials and the development of optimized electrocatalysts.

Designing efficient anode CO-tolerant electrocatalysts is critical in low-temperature fuel cell catalysts fueled either by H-2/CO or alcohol. We demonstrate that the incorporation of TiO2 nanocubes (TiO2NCs) on Carbon Vulcan supports, followed by the synthesis of Pt NPs at their surface (Pt/TiO2NCs-C material), led to improvements in performance towards the electrooxidation of carbon monoxide, ethanol, methanol, ethylene glycol, and glycerol in acidic media relative to the commercial Pt/C and Pt/TiO2-C counterparts employing commercial TiO2. The nanocubes enabled changes in the electronic properties of Pt NPs while contributing to the bifunctional mechanism as compared to Pt/C and Pt/TiO2-C with commercial TiO2. Fuel cell experiments fed with H-2/CO steam showed that Pt/TiO2NCs-C employing nanocubes was resistant to CO-poisoning, yielding superior performance in operational conditions. The results reported herein have important implications for developing electrocatalysts with superior performances in PEMFCs.

The localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) excitation in plasmonic nanoparticles (NPs) in the visible and near-infrared ranges is currently at the forefront of improving photocatalytic performances via plasmonic photocatalysis. One bottleneck of this field is that the NPs that often display the best optical properties in the visible and near-infrared ranges are based on expensive noble metals such as silver (Ag) and gold (Au). While earth-abundant plasmonic materials have been proposed together with catalytic metals in antenna-reactor systems, their performances remain limited by their optical properties. Importantly, the synthesis of plasmonic photocatalysts remains challenging in terms of scalability while often requiring several steps, high temperatures, and special conditions. Herein, we address these challenges by developing a one-pot, gram-scale, room-temperature synthesis of earth-abundant plasmonic photocatalysts while improving their activities beyond what has been dictated by the LSPR excitation of the plasmonic component. We describe the mechanochemical synthesis of earth-abundant plasmonic photocatalysts by using MoO3 (antenna) and Au (reactor) NPs as a proof-of-concept example and demonstrate that the dual plasmonic excitation of antenna and reactor sites enables the tuning of plasmonic photocatalytic performances toward the reductive coupling of nitrobenzene to azobenzene as a model reaction. In addition to providing a pathway to the facile and gramscale synthesis of plasmonic photocatalysts, the results reported herein may open pathways to improved activities in plasmonic catalysis.

In this work, the effect of interfacial sites between Pd particles and Nb2O5 species is investigated by testing a series of Pd-Nb2O5/SiO2 catalysts with different niobium loadings for the HDO reaction of phenol in the gas phase. Important differences in the selectivity to deoxygenated product were observed depending on the presence of niobium oxide close to Pd particles, which reveals the key role of the type of active phase in the control of reaction steps. It was found that Pd/SiO2 catalyst promotes hydrogenation pathways, producing cyclohex-anone as the major product. For Pd-Nb2O5/SiO2 catalyst containing a Nb/Pd molar ratio of 0.5, a sharp increase in the selectivity to benzene is observed (7.5-fold). Increasing the Nb/Pd molar ratio, the formation of benzene is enhanced. The results showed that the Pd-Nb2O5 interface, composed by an oxophilic oxide in the perimeter of the metal particle, is responsible for the activation of the C-O bond, promoting the deoxygenation reaction.

We reported herein the synthesis in high yields (>97%) of Ce0.9Sm0.1O2-δ nanowires displaying well-defined shape, size, and composition by a simple, fast, and low-cost two-step hydrothermal method. The Ce0.9Sm0.1O2-δ nanowires synthesis was followed by the wet impregnation of Ni without the utilization of any stabilizing agent. The Ni/Ce0.9Sm0.1O2-δ nanowires showed higher surface area, high concentration of oxygen vacancies at surface, and finely dispersed Ni particles with significantly higher metallic surface area as compared with catalysts prepared from commercial materials with similar compositions. Such unique and improved properties are reflected on the catalytic performance of the Ni/Ce0.9Sm0.1O2-δ nanowires towards ethanol steam reforming. The nanowires exhibited high yields for hydrogen production (∼60% of selectivity) and an exceptional stability with no loss of activity after 192 h of reaction at 550 °C. The reported results provide insights and can inspire high-yield production of nanostructured catalysts displaying controlled and superior properties that enable practical applications in heterogeneous catalysis.

We develop herein plasmonic-catalytic Au-IrO

We reported the organic template-free synthesis of gold (Au) nanoparticles (NPs) supported on TiO2, SiO2, and Al2O3 displaying uniform Au sizes and high dispersions over the supports. The Au-based catalysts were prepared by a deposition–precipitation method using urea as the precipitating agent. In the next step, the solvent-free oxidation of benzyl alcohol was investigated as model reaction using only 0.08–0.05 mol% of Au loadings and oxygen (O2) as the oxidant. Very high catalytic performances (TOF up to 443,624 h−1) could be achieved. Specifically, we investigated their catalytic activities, selectivity, and stabilities as well as the role of metal–support interactions over the performances. The conversion of the substrate was found to be associated with the nature of the employed support as the Au NPs presented similar sizes in all materials. A sub-stoichiometric amount of base was sufficient for the catalyst activation and the observation of the catalysts profile over the time enable insights on their recyclability performances. We believe this reported method represents a facile approach for the synthesis of uniform Au-supported catalysts displaying high performances.

By a combination of theoretical and experimental design, we unraveled the effect of {111} and {100} surface facets on the electrocatalytic sensing activities and stabilities of metal oxides by employing Cu2O crystals as a model substrate and glucose as the analyte. We started by theoretically investigating the potential energy curves for the glucose interaction with the Cu2O {111} and {100} surface facets. We found that the glucose interaction energy was significantly higher for the {100} facets than for the {111} facets. Then, we experimentally observed that their electrocatalytic sensing performance displayed shape-dependent behavior. While the catalytic activities followed the order cubes > cuboctahedrons > octahedrons, their stabilities showed the opposite trend. The higher catalytic activity enabled by the {100} facets is explained by their stronger interaction with glucose. On the other hand, the higher stability allowed by the {111} facets is justified by their lower concentration of oxygen vacanci...

Plasmonic catalysis takes advantage of the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) excitation to drive or accelerate chemical transformations. In addition to the plasmonic component, the control over metal-support interactions in these catalysts is expected to strongly influence the performances. For example, CeO2 has been widely employed towards oxidation reactions due to its oxygen mobility and storage properties, which allow for the formation of Ce3+ sites and adsorbed oxygen species from metal-support interactions. It is anticipated that these species may be activated by the SPR excitation and contribute to the catalytic activity of the material. Thus, a clear understanding of the role played by the SPR-mediated activation of surface oxide species at the metal-support interface is needed in order to take advantage of this phenomenon. Herein, we describe and quantify the contribution from active surface oxide species at the metal-support interface (relative to O2 from air) to the activities in green SPR-mediated oxidation reactions. We employed CeO2 decorated with Au NPs (Au/CeO2) as a model plasmonic catalyst and the oxidation of p-aminothiophenol (PATP) and aniline as proof-of-concept transformations. We compared the results with SiO2 decorated with Au NPs (Au/SiO2), in which the formation of surface oxide species at the metal-support interface is not expected. We found that the SPR-mediated activation of surface oxide species at the metal-support interface in Au/CeO2 played a pivotal role in the detected activities, being even higher than the contribution coming from the activation of O2 from air.

We develop herein plasmonic-catalytic Au-IrO2 nanostructures with a morphology optimized for efficient light harvesting and catalytic surface area; the nanoparticles have a nanoflower morphology, with closely spaced Au branches all partially covered by an ultrathin (1 nm) IrO2 shell. This nanoparticle architecture optimizes optical features due to the interactions of closely spaced plasmonic branches forming electromagnetic hot spots, and the ultra-thin IrO2 layer maximizes efficient use of this expensive catalyst. This concept was evaluated towards the enhancement of the electrocatalytic performances towards the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) as a model transformation. The OER can play a central role in meeting future energy demands but the performance of conventional electrocatalysts in this reaction is limited by the sluggish OER kinetics. We demonstrate an improvement of the OER performance for one of the most active OER catalysts, IrO2, by harvesting plasmonic effects from visible light illumination in multimetallic nanoparticles. We find that the OER activity for the Au-IrO2 nanoflowers can be improved under LSPR excitation, matching best properties reported in the literature. Our simulations and electrocatalytic data demonstrate that the enhancement in OER activities can be attributed to an electronic interaction between Au and IrO2 and to the activation of Ir-O bonds by LSPR excited hot holes, leading to a change in the reaction mechanism (rate-determinant step) under visible light illumination.

A mechano-colloidal approach was developed to produce Au nano-tadpoles. It comprises the generation of seeds by ball-milling from a solid mixture containing a precursor, reductant, and capping agent, followed by the dispersion of this mixture in water leading to seeded-growth to generate the target nanoparticle morphology.

Selective hydrogenation of alkynes to alkenes and reductive amination are industrially important reactions to synthesize a variety of fine and bulk chemicals. We report herein on a green and convenient approach for Z-alkenes and secondary amines using gold catalyst and formic acid (FA) as a green reductant. Furthermore, we highlight that the key to successfully obtain high reaction rates is to use an appropriate amine, which acts cooperatively with the gold surface, to activate formic acid. Studies with deuterium-labeled hydrogen donors gave insights that the decomposition of Au-formate species is involved in the rate-determining step. Moreover, various valuable secondary amines could be synthetized from readily available nitro and carbonyl compounds. This new strategy provides a cleaner, safer, more efficient and selective way to catalyze the synthesis of Z-alkenes and valuable amines.

International audience; (600:[600]600) Sylwester Gawinkowski opened a general discussion of the paper by Jorge Salmon-Gamboa: Why you are using SiO 2 nanoparticles? Do they have any function or are they only the substrate to attach other active nano-particles to? You have shown that only gold nanoparticles attached to silica nanoparticles do not inuence the rate of reaction signicantly. You have also demonstrated that adding platinum decorations on the gold nanoparticles causes a strong increase in the reaction rate. The signicance of the gold nanoparticles would be more clearly shown with a simple experiment in which you have no gold nanoparticles but still have platinum decorations. Jorge Salmon-Gamboa replied: Silica nanoparticles were chosen as a nano-sized inert substrate for Au nanoparticles. This choice of substrate provides a larger surface area covered with the active Au-Pt nanoparticles, in contrast to the situation when the active particles are placed directly onto a at substrate. Aiming for applications, the SiO 2-Au-Pt nanoparticles can then in turn be attached onto a at surface, forming a solid device that can be submerged into water, avoiding the problem of water contamination by nanoparticles. The role of the Au nano-particles was investigated. Under illumination in the LSP spectral band (556-566 nm), SiO 2-Pt did not enhance the reaction rate. In contrast, under the same conditions, SiO 2-Au-Pt showed a considerably enhanced rate, proving that hot carriers were generated in Au (see Fig. 1 below). (601:[601]601) Yuri Diaz Fernandez continued the discussion: I have two questions: (1) Can you comment on the dispersity of the size distribution of metal and SiO 2 particles and how well controlled are these in your system?

The localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) excitation in plasmonic nanoparticles has been used to accelerate several catalytic transformations under visible-light irradiation. In order to fully harness the potential of plasmonic catalysis, multimetallic nanoparticles containing a plasmonic and a catalytic component, where LSPR-excited energetic charge carriers and the intrinsic catalytic active sites work synergistically, have raised increased attention. Despite several exciting studies observing rate enhancements, controlling reaction selectivity remains very challenging. Here, by employing multimetallic nanoparticles combining Au, Ag, and Pt in an Au@Ag@Pt core–shell and an Au@AgPt nanorattle architectures, we demonstrate that reaction selectivity of a sequential reaction can be controlled under visible light illumination. The control of the reaction selectivity in plasmonic catalysis was demonstrated for the hydrogenation of phenylacetylene as a model transformation. We have found that the localized interaction between the triple bond in phenylacetylene and the Pt nanoparticle surface enables selective hydrogenation of the triple bond (relative to the double bond in styrene) under visible light illumination. Atomistic calculations show that the enhanced selectivity toward the partial hydrogenation product is driven by distinct adsorption configurations and charge delocalization of the reactant and the reaction intermediate at the catalyst surface. We believe these results will contribute to the use of plasmonic catalysis to drive and control a wealth of selective molecular transformations under ecofriendly conditions and visible light illumination.

The effect of the morphology and size of unsupported molybdenum carbide (β-Mo2C) was investigated in the selective hydrogenation of levulinic acid to γ-valerolactone (GVL) in aqueous phase. Nanostructured β-Mo2C was synthetized by two different approaches: (i) using multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNT) as both hard template and source of carbon and; (ii) using 1D nanostructured α-MoO3 as precursor. Depending on the type of synthesis used, the morphology of the resulting β-Mo2C was different. Well-oriented β-Mo2C nanoparticles with a fibril morphology were formed when CNTs were used as hard template and source of carbon at 700 °C for 6 h under inert environment, while well-defined β-Mo2C 1D nanostructures were formed after carburization of the nano-sized α-MoO3 precursor at 650 °C/2 h under 20 % (v/v) CH4/H2 atmosphere. The catalytic performance of the materials was investigated at 30 bar H2 and 180 °C in a batch reactor and compared with a Mo2C synthesized by temperature-programmed carburization of commercial MoO3. The β-Mo2C 1D nanostructures presented a relatively higher activity than the others probably as a result of more exposed active sites, confirmed by the higher CO chemisorption uptake. All of the catalysts were highly selective to GVL (>85 %). Deep hydrogenation products such as 1,4 pentanediol and methyltetrahydrofuran were observed in minor amounts, underlining the hydrogenation potential of molybdenum carbide based materials.

The effect of acid treatment in mixed MnOx–CeO2 samples has been investigated in the catalytic total oxidation of formaldehyde. The acid treatment has no effect on the textural and redox properties of the materials when Mn is stabilized in a MnOx–CeO2 solid solution (Mn content below 50%). However, these properties were found to be highly altered by acid treatment when the solubility limit of Mn in the ceria was exceeded (Mn content above 50%). This enabled access to the primary porosity and oxidized the manganese species to a higher oxidation state via a Mn dismutation reaction. As a result, the catalytic activity of pure manganese oxide, after chemical activation, in the oxidation of formaldehyde is greatly improved—at 100 °C, the conversion of formaldehyde is increased by a factor of 5 and the corresponding intrinsic reaction rate by 1.4. Combined in situ surface analysis unambiguously identified formate species as a result of formaldehyde oxidation at room temperature on the chemically activated pure ...

International audience; Compared to other molecules such as benzene, toluene, xylene, and chlorinated compounds, the catalytic oxidation of formaldehyde has been studied rarely. However, standards for the emission level of this pollutant will become more restrictive because of its extreme toxicity even at very low concentrations in air. As a consequence, the development of a highly efficient process for its selective elimination is needed. Complete catalytic oxidation of formaldehyde into CO2 and H2O using noble-metal-based catalysts is a promising method to convert this pollutant at room temperature, making this process energetically attractive from an industrial point of view. However, the development of a less expensive active phase is required for a large-scale industrial development. Nanomaterials based on oxides of manganese are described as the most promising catalysts. The objective of this Minireview is to present promising recent studies on the removal of formaldehyde through heterogeneous catalysis to stimulate future research in this topic.

Manganese oxide mesoporous materials were prepared by using template assisted method followed by an acidic treatment. The cerium addition to manganese oxide mesoporous structure was also studied. All the solids were characterized by XRD and specific surface area and pore size distributions were calculated from nitrogen sorption studies. XRD results suggested the formation of the MnO x -CeO 2 solid solution with the fluorite-type structure. The BET surface area values and the pore size distributions allowed to conclude the important role of the surfactant by the creation of narrow mesopores in the material.

Submitted by Christianne Fontes de Andrade (cfontes@ct.ufrj.br) on 2019-05-02T17:59:07Z No. of bitstreams: 1 871633.pdf: 1671904 bytes, checksum: f2cb011b1a60a268ec1ef5c6645e1896 (MD5) Made available in DSpace on 2019-05-02T17:59:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 871633.pdf: 1671904 bytes, checksum: f2cb011b1a60a268ec1ef5c6645e1896 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-03 O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o efeito promotor do níquel em catalisadores à base de carbeto de molibdênio na reação de reforma seca do metano, testados na faixa de temperatura de 700 a 850 °C. Diversos óxidos precursores (nanoestruturados ou não) foram sintetizados pelos métodos de co-precipitação, impregnação ao ponto úmido e mistura física de forma a se uma obter a razão molar Ni/Mo igual 0,2. Estes óxidos foram carburados para gerar os catalisadores. Os precursores e catalisadores foram caracterizados por difração de raios X (DRX), carburação à temperatura programada (TPC), microscopia eletrônica de varredura (MEV) e transmissão (MET), fisissorção de N2, quimissorção de CO, reação na superfície à temperatura programada (TPSR) e espectroscopia Raman. As avaliações catalíticas mostraram que a morfologia nanoestruturada do β-Mo2C é mais resistente à desativação do que a não nanoestuturada. O método de co-precipitação resultou no catalisador (Ni0,2MoCx) mais ativo e estável, com conversões de CH4 e CO2 em torno de 80 e 90%, respectivamente, assim como uma razão H2/CO de 0,78 durante 20 h de reação a 850 °C, sendo este resultado devido ao maior contato entre as partículas de Ni0 e β-Mo2C obtida nesta amostra. The main objective of this work was to evaluate the promoting effect of nickel in the molybdenum carbide used as catalysts in the dry reforming of methane (DRM), tested in the temperature range of 700-850 °C. Several oxide precursors (nanostructured or not) were synthesized by the methods of coprecipitation (CP), wet impregnation and mechanical mixture in order to achieve the Ni/Mo molar ratio of 0.2. These oxides were carburized to synthetize the catalysts. The precursors and catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), temperature-programmed carburization (TPC), scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM and TEM), N2 physisorption, CO chemisorption, temperature-programmed surface reaction (TPSR) and Raman spectroscopy. The catalysts evaluations showed that the nanostructured β-Mo2C morphology is more resistant to deactivation than the not nanostructured one. Furthermore, the CP method resulted in the most active and stable catalyst (Ni0,2MoCx), performing conversions of CH4 and CO2 of about 80 and 90%, respectively, as well as a H2/CO ratio of 0,78 during 20 h of reaction at 850 °C, due to the greater contact between the Ni0 and β-Mo2C.