Heterogeneous Catalysts: Design, Synthesis, and Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Heterogeneous catalysis is now vital in the chemical industry, considering that over 90% of all chemical manufacturing is based on catalytic processes, and the fact that catalysis contributes to approximately 35% of the world's gross domestic product.

Catalytic reactions do not only occur on the basis of the production of several chemicals and materials, but they play a crucial role in energy applications, pollution control, medical applications, and food production. Progressively, more and more, the increasingly complex reaction networks require not only a given desired conversion being promoted, but any undesirable side reactions must also be avoided: the essential target today deals with an improvement in reaction yields, the simplification of the overall manufacturing process, the elimination of expensive product separation steps, and the minimization of polluting by-products.

Novel nanotechnologies developed in recent years allow for the synthesizing of complex solids with well-defined characteristics. The ability to produce samples with specific sizes or shapes, or to grow complex solid nanostructures, can be exploited to fulfil specific requirements in catalysis in terms of selectivity, as identified via molecular-level investigations on the reaction mechanisms.

This synergy between the surface chemistry of catalysis and nanotechnology is still in its infancy, but has already led to many exciting developments, and promises to revolutionize chemical manufacturing.

For this Special Issue, we welcome work concerning the tenets that can direct research into catalysis, i.e., nanoparticle synthesis, characterization under reaction conditions, and reaction studies using these nanoparticles to determine kinetics, selectivity, deactivation, and other catalytic kinetic parameters which underpin molecular catalysis.

Dr. Marta Stucchi
Guest Editor

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• nanoparticles
• metal nanoparticles
• metal active sites
• single-site catalysts
• structure–activity relations
• heterogeneous catalysis
• nanoparticle synthesis
• in situ characterization
• selectivity
• molecular catalysis