Design of nanocatalysts following molecular chemistry principles

Résumé :

Due to their singular properties and potential applications in various fields, considerable effort is being devoted to the design of metal-based nanomaterials. The « Metal Nanoparticle Engineering » team at LCC-CNRS (Toulouse, France) has developed an effective toolkit for the synthesis of controlled metal nanoparticles using concepts from molecular chemistry. This approach is based on the hydrogenation of organometallic or metallo-organic complexes under mild conditions (ambient temperature; 3 bar H2) in the presence of ligands as stabilising agents. (1) This approach makes it possible to obtain small nanoparticles (<10 nm) with controlled composition, either monometallic or bimetallic (alloy, core-shell, surface-decorated). These nanoparticles can be deposited on a support by simple impregnation or by direct synthesis in the presence of the chosen support (polymers, ionic liquids, silica, alumina, carbonaceous materials, etc.). These metal nanoparticle systems are suitable models for fundamental research. They find applications in various fields such as catalysis. (2,3) Non exhaustive examples concern biomass valorization (4), hydrogenation catalysis (4-6) including reduction of CO2, (7) or electrocatalytic (8-11) or photocatalytic (12-13) water splitting process.

References :

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Contact : carole.duboc@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr