Regioselective Generation of Single-Site Iridium Atoms and Their Evolution into Stabilized Subnanometric Iridium Clusters in MWW Zeolite

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: L. Liu, M. Lopez-Haro, D. M. Meira, P. Concepcion, J. J. Calvino, A. Corma, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2020, 59, 15695, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202005621. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.
[EN] Preparation of supported metal catalysts with uniform particle size and coordination environment is a challenging and important topic in materials chemistry and catalysis. In this work, we report the regioselective generation of single-site Ir atoms and their evolution into stabilized subnanometric Ir clusters in MWW zeolite, which are located at the 10MR window connecting the two neighboring 12MR supercages. The size of the subnanometric Ir clusters can be controlled by the post-synthesis treatments and maintain below 1 nm even after being reduced at 650 degrees C, which cannot be readily achieved with samples prepared by conventional impregnation methods. The high structure sensitivity, size-dependence, of catalytic performance in the alkane hydrogenolysis reaction of Ir clusters in the subnanometric regime is evidenced.